Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: “When we eliminate all the emotional rhetoric here on the floor, what we get to is this amendment. This amendment…”

“When we eliminate all the emotional rhetoric here on the floor, what we get to is this amendment. This amendment provides an economic lifeline to the dictatorship. By prohibiting OFAC from enforcing U.S. laws and regulations, this amendment removes those safeguards and it provides the Castro regime with the much needed currency to continue its reign of terror. Prisoners of conscience are languishing in squalid cells in Cuba, and yet, what are we doing? We are going to bestow this pariah state another victory. Castro is very happy when we do these amendments. Former political prisoners in my Congressional district who endured the most inhumane treatment are the first ones to oppose any weakening of these restrictions. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the Davis amendment.”