Jerry Moran: “Reserving the right to object, Mr. President, I am a member of the Appropriations Committee, and a member--in fact, the…”

“Reserving the right to object, Mr. President, I am a member of the Appropriations Committee, and a member--in fact, the ranking minority member--of the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee. The amendment the majority leader offered, that excluded the provisions related to Cuba, was an amendment that was adopted by the full Appropriations Committee in a very bipartisan way. In fact, the vote was two-thirds to one-third--20 votes in favor, 10 votes against. The provisions that have been struck by the procedure that has occurred today are the final implementation of legislation that was passed by this Congress in 2001 in which we provided for the first time the sale for cash upfront of agricultural commodities, food, and medicine. It has always been my view, when we fail to sell agricultural commodities to Cuba, we only harm ourselves. Again, the amendment that has been eliminated from consideration today, through this process, would implement the ability for money to be transferred to the United States by a Cuban bank for purposes of paying for that sale upfront. We have worked closely with the administration, with the Treasury Department, to make certain that nothing contained or nothing that would be contained in this provision would be objectionable to the security or the financial safety and soundness of our country.…”