Lincoln Diaz-Balart: “I am glad this amendment is here. President Obama said--and he said this a while ago--that his policies are to help…”

“I am glad this amendment is here. President Obama said--and he said this a while ago--that his policies are to help promote the Cuban people's independence from Cuban authorities. Now, no one can claim that the Cuban military and the Cuban intelligence community and their direct family members are not the Cuban authorities. Nothing is more authority than those two things. Let's unmask what this amendment does. The language in the mark, in the bill, simply affirms that we should not send exports--I will make this very clear--to the Cuban military or the intelligence community or their immediate families. In unmasking this amendment, what this amendment is saying is no, no, no, that we do support and that we do want to do business with the Cuban military and the Cuban intelligence services and their immediate families. By the way, it is the same military and intelligence services that brutalized the Cuban people, that beat prodemocracy demonstrators, that beat a number of American citizens in Panama recently, that illegally smuggles weapons, which has members of that Cuban military under indictment here in a U.S. Federal court for the murder of American citizens. I am glad this amendment is here because this amendment unmasks the underlying issue, and the chairman's mark specifically deals with-- again, as I mentioned--the Cuban military and the intelligence community and their immediate relatives.…”