Restrictions on Travel to Cuba Hearing
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S. HRG. 107–361 RESTRICTIONS ON TRAVEL TO CUBA HEARING BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION SPECIAL HEARING FEBRUARY 11, 2002—WASHINGTON, DC Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 78–446 PDF WASHINGTON : 2002 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 21-JUN-2000 13:00 May 02, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 U:\13HEAR\2003\78446.XXX DORISJ PsN: DORISJ COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia, Chairman DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii TED STEVENS, Alaska ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, South Carolina THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania TOM HARKIN, Iowa PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri HARRY REID, Nevada MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky HERB KOHL, Wisconsin CONRAD BURNS, Montana PATTY MURRAY, Washington RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, Colorado TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota LARRY CRAIG, Idaho MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas JACK REED, Rhode Island MIKE DEWINE, Ohio TERRENCE E. SAUVAIN, Staff Director CHARLES KIEFFER, Deputy Staff Director STEVEN J. CORTESE, Minority Staff Director LISA SUTHERLAND, Minority Deputy Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON TREASURY AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota, Chairman BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, Colorado MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama JACK REED, Rhode Island MIKE DEWINE, Ohio ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia TED STEVENS, Alaska (ex officio) (ex officio) Professional Staff CHIP WALGREN NICOLE RUTBERG PAT RAYMOND (Minority) LULA EDWARDS (Minority) (II) VerDate 21-JUN-2000 13:00 May 02, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 U:\13HEAR\2003\78446.XXX DORISJ PsN: DORISJ CONTENTS Page Opening statement of Senator Byron L. Dorgan ................................................... 1 Statement of Marilyn Meister ................................................................................ 3 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 5 Statement of Cevin Allen, Sammamish, Washington ........................................... 6 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 8 Statement of John Harriman, Chicago, Illinois .................................................... 10 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 12 Statement of John I. Gilderbloom, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Urban and Public Affairs, College of Business and Public Administration, Univer- sity of Louisville ................................................................................................... 13 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 16 Biographical sketch .......................................................................................... 21 Statement of Nancy Chang, Center for Constitutional Rights ............................ 22 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 25 Statement of Richard Newcomb, Director, Office of Foreign Assets Control, Department of the Treasury ................................................................................ 33 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 40 Statement of James Carragher, Coordinator for Cuban Affairs, Department of State .................................................................................................................. 45 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 45 Statement of Hon. Dennis DeConcini, former U.S. Senator from the State of Arizona, on behalf of the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy .................. 56 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 58 Statement of Ambassador Dennis K. Hayes, Vice President, Cuban American National Foundation ............................................................................................ 60 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 61 Prepared statement of Frank Calzon, Center for a Free Cuba ............................ 67 Prepared statement of Timothy H. Edgar, American Civil Liberties Union ...... 73 (III) VerDate 21-JUN-2000 13:00 May 02, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 U:\13HEAR\2003\78446.XXX DORISJ PsN: DORISJ VerDate 21-JUN-2000 13:00 May 02, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 U:\13HEAR\2003\78446.XXX DORISJ PsN: DORISJ RESTRICTIONS ON TRAVEL TO CUBA MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2002 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON TREASURY AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT, COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 10:07 a.m., in room SD–192, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Byron L. Dorgan (chairman) pre- siding. Present: Senator Dorgan. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BYRON L. DORGAN Senator DORGAN. We will call the meeting to order. First of all, let me welcome all of you to this hearing. This is a hearing of the Subcommittee on Appropriations dealing with Treasury and Gen- eral Government. This hearing is to deal with a subject that, of course, most of you know is fraught with controversy, the subject of Cuba travel and especially, from the perspective of the sub- committee, the enforcement of the Cuban travel restrictions. This subcommittee funds, an agency called the Office of Foreign Assets Control. That office in the Treasury Department is central to the issue of trying to track terrorists’ assets, among other things. The National Terrorist Assets Tracking Center is housed within OFAC, the Office of Foreign Asset Control. Working with the Fi- nancial Crimes Enforcement Network, OFAC leads our Nation’s war against global terrorist financing. It does that with a relatively small budget. Indeed, the President’s budget this year proposes to increase OFAC’s budget by about $2 million in fiscal year 2003 over fiscal year 2002. One of the reasons that we wanted to have a hearing on this issue is to evaluate what has been happening with respect to OFAC and its use of resources in enforcing the travel restrictions, especially with respect to Cuba. We have had numerous reports in the past year or so that the Office of Foreign Assets Control has dramatically increased the number of enforcement actions against U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba. Particularly in the aftermath of September 11, one must ask: What is the best use of assets at OFAC and at the Treasury De- partment? Should it be focusing its resources on tracking the U.S. assets of terrorists, thereby helping prevent future attacks, or should it be using precious resources to enforce the travel restric- tions with respect to Cuba? (1) VerDate 21-JUN-2000 13:00 May 02, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\13HEAR\2003\78446.XXX DORISJ PsN: DORISJ 2 While this hearing is not about the policy of restrictions on travel to Cuba, it is about the funding of OFAC and how much is being devoted to enforcement of that policy. Let me say that my feeling is that the travel restrictions with respect to Cuba are ill-advised. I have no Truck for Fidel Castro. He is a dictator and his mis- management of the Cuban economy and human rights violations have brought misery to the Cuban people. But in an attempt to punish Fidel Castro, we are restricting the freedom of the Amer- ican people to travel. I do not think that those restrictions hurt Fidel Castro. They certainly do disadvantage the American citizen. Despite the fact that I am philosophically opposed to these re- strictions and would love to see democracy in Cuba, I believe that the best way to achieve progress in Cuba is very much the way we achieved progress in the old Soviet Union and the way we are striving to achieve progress, for example, in China, and that is through more interaction and more involvement and more travel and more education. People-to-people interaction worked to bring down the Soviet government, to bring about significant reforms in China, and I believe they can do the same in Cuba. Let me just say, as a Senator from a farm State, I would very much like to see family farmers in North Dakota be able to travel to Cuba and sell their crops to Cuba without impediment. This travel ban only hinders such sales. I will cite one example of how these travel restrictions can im- pede our agricultural sector and family farmers. In January of this year, the Farm Foundation applied for a license to send a delega- tion of 100 people to Cuba. They were turned down. This is a non- profit group based in Illinois. Two former Agriculture Secretaries were going to join the delegation. The current Agriculture Sec- retary and Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary all served