Lateefah Simon: “I recognize this bill is going to pass, and I recognize the President is going to sign it. It is bad legislation. It is…”

“I recognize this bill is going to pass, and I recognize the President is going to sign it. It is bad legislation. It is an emotional reaction to a situation that, obviously, all Americans are unhappy about. The action of Castro in shooting down those planes is indefensible. I have to add, our policy toward Cuba has been the basic cause of the friction. If that policy had changed a long time ago, those planes would not have been shot down. I will take two examples--Cuba and China. Will anyone here suggest-- and I do not for a moment defend the human rights policies of Fidel Castro--but does anyone here suggest that Cuba's human rights policy is worse than China's? Yet, what do we do? We say to China, ``We are going to give you the MFN status, the favorable treatment on trade.'' When China growls, as the Presiding Officer knows, we quake. I think it is a bad policy to have one policy like this on China and another totally different policy on Castro, who is not a threat to anybody. How many nations in the world follow the policy that we do on Cuba? None. Not even our good friend, Israel, who frequently, probably sometimes in embarrassment, votes with the United States. No nation follows our policy on Cuba. It just does not make sense.”