55 Dems Join GOP to Tank Tlaib Amendment Aimed at Helping Cuba Import Food From US

Dozens of House Democrats joined nearly all of their Republican colleagues on Wednesday to vote down an amendment from Rep. Rashida Tlaib that would have made it easier for Cuba to import food grown by U.S. farmers.

Tlaib’s (D-Mich.) amendment to H.R. 8294, which funds the Treasury Department and its Office of Foreign Assets Control, would have suspended enforcement of the U.S. government’s ban on financing agricultural sales to Cuba. The Caribbean island is currently in the grips of a crushing economic crisis made worse by Washington’s 60-year embargo.

“Today, Cuba faces its most devastating economic crisis in thirty years, forcing tens of thousands of Cuban people to spend hours in line waiting for food each and every day,” the lawmakers stated.

“In the past six months, we have seen a surge of Cubans fleeing to the U.S.-Mexico border. This amendment would help ease the economic burden by suspending U.S. farm export regulations and extending credit to Cuban food buyers for one year”, they asserted.

The measure has previously been included in several pieces of unpassed legislation, including the Cuba Agricultural Exports Act, which had dozens of GOP cosponsors. It is identical to a bipartisan amendment submitted to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill in 2017 but later withdrawn.

Nevertheless, the amendment failed to pass on Wednesday when 205 House Republicans and 55 of their Democratic counterparts, including all 11 of Florida’s representatives in the lower chamber of Congress, voted against it. Just one Republican supported the measure, compared with 162 Democrats. Thirteen lawmakers did not vote.

Originally published at Commondreams.org.