Peter Deutsch: “this is an issue that, from my district at least, is a local issue. I represent a district that is 90 miles from the…”

“this is an issue that, from my district at least, is a local issue. I represent a district that is 90 miles from the shores of Cuba and people visit under the existing process right now. But one of the things that has been talked about, as recently as my last colleague who spoke, many of my colleagues have visited Cuba and they have met with dissidents and they have stayed in hotels. One of the things they are probably not aware of is that no Cuban is legally allowed to eat and enter a hotel in Cuba. They might have eaten with one of the so-called dissidents, but it was illegal under Cuba law, and the only reason why they could is because they are a Member of Congress. Cuba is treated differently. But there is no other name on the list that people have offered that is 90 miles from our shore, but also has a unique system that Cuba has. People have talked about Castro being in power for a long time. In many ways this dictatorship has been the most controlling in the world. If we look at the process of tourism and what keeps the Castro dictatorship around is, in fact, hard dollars. Passing the Flake amendment would, in fact, enable Castro to continue.”