In announcing the policy change, the President stated that this is fundamentally about freedom and openness.

It is not an acknowledgement that things are better in terms of human rights in Cuba or any more democracy.

I think President Obama had courage, just as Nixon had courage to go to China, just as Reagan had courage to deal with Gorbachev, just as Bill Clinton and John Kerry and John McCain had courage to fight for normalization with Vietnam.

So we will never agree with the Cuban Government that in order to open an embassy, we will agree to limit our personnel.

the United States is not the obstacle to Cuba's integration with the hemisphere.

So then why would we not limit our opening in travel to say that if you travel to Cuba, you can only stay at one of these casas particulares or one of these other nongovernmental, nonmilitary-owned facilities?

none of this, Cuba's repression, its poverty, its isolation, is the fault of the United States or of the embargo.

I also want to thank Senator Boxer.

Is there an example of a country in the modern era that has gone from a tyranny to a dictatorship because of these sorts of economic openings that then have led the government to make political changes?

Your government must move forward and extend a hand to the people and government of Cuba, but with the request that the hands of Cuban citizens not be tied.

The only lever in this negotiation is the congressionally imposed sanctions regime.