Mr. Chairman, rhetoric is really cheap here, but I would urge Members to read the bill and to read the second term. It reads: The term ``Cuban military intelligence service'' includes but is not limited to the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of Interior of Cuba and any subsidiary of such ministry. The term ``immediate family'' means spouse, sibling, son, daughter, and so on. The analysis by our own Library of Congress says that this would severely hurt the consumer communication devices that would be sent to families in Cuba as part of the negotiations that are going on right now between the United States and the administration. It would also hurt materials, equipment, tools used by the private sector to construct or to renovate privately owned buildings, tools and equipment for private sector agriculture activity, tools and equipment and supplies and instruments used by the private sector. This provision just kills the ability for the United States to open up trade that every other country has. This is just a ``family feud'' amendment. This is not good business, and that is why the business community is opposed. Mr. Chairman, how much time do I have remaining? The Acting CHAIR (Mr. McClintock). The gentleman from California has 2 minutes remaining.
Share & report
More from Sam Farr
It is very interesting that the capitalist society out there supports my amendment: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Foreign Trade Council, Engage Cuba, the Emergency Committee for American Trade. They wrote a letter that they…
I thank the ranking member of the committee, Mrs. Lowey. Mr. Speaker, I want to just remind people that this is a big bill. It is a bill that has got a lot in it. It has got a lot more good in it than it has bad in it. Big bills have both…
Mr. Chairman, I make a point of order against the amendment because it proposes to change existing law and constitutes legislation in an appropriation bill and, therefore, violates clause 2 of rule XXI. That rule states in pertinent part…
I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Madam Speaker, there has been a lot of talk here about a bill that is only two pages long. You have heard a lot of talk about and a lot of misstatements of fact about Planned Parenthood. But guess…





