Roy Blunt: “Cuba is different. Cuba is 90 miles away. It is in this hemisphere. The Secretary of State of the United States says…”

“Cuba is different. Cuba is 90 miles away. It is in this hemisphere. The Secretary of State of the United States says Cuba is different in treatment on these issues. The President of the United States says Cuba is different in treatment on these issues. Within the last 2 weeks, the President has said that the United States stands opposed to such tyranny, talking about Cuba, and will oppose any attempt to weaken sanctions against the Castro regime until it respects the basic human rights of its citizens, frees political prisoners, holds democratic free elections, and allows free speech. That is a higher standard than even the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Rothman) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) have put forth in this amendment. This is a sanction. Clearly, it is a travel sanction; but it is a sanction on a country that is the only dictatorship in our hemisphere. Mr. Chairman, 77 convicted U.S. felons are in Cuba, people who have killed police officers are in Cuba, people on the FBI's 10 most wanted list are in Cuba. We need to have respect for our rule of law before we move forward with this kind of change in policy.”