Max Baucus: “This amendment goes to the heart of our debate over the structure and purpose of the U.S. intelligence community. My…”

“This amendment goes to the heart of our debate over the structure and purpose of the U.S. intelligence community. My amendment addresses the allocation of resources at Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC. Much of our attention has focused on the creation of a new, independent office to oversee our intelligence activities. Often lost in this debate are the details about many of the smaller, lesser known Federal agencies whose efforts are essential to our national security. Even though many people don't know who they are, OFAC is one of our most powerful weapons in the war on terrorism, because it is charged with tracking down and identifying the international sources of terrorist financing. Unfortunately, OFAC is also tasked with administration of the Cuba travel ban. As we all know, U.S. policy toward Cuba is a highly emotional and divisive issue. Still, I would doubt that anyone seriously thinks that travel by Americans to Cuba poses a larger or more serious threat to U.S. interests than al-Qaida or the insurgents in Iraq, or Syria, Iran or North Korea. My colleagues might be surprised and disturbed, then, to learn that-- at the direction of the State Department--OFAC diverts more of its personnel resources to imposition of the Cuba travel ban than to any other country or project-specific issue. According to their records, the equivalent of 21 full-time OFAC employees are allocated to the Cuba travel ban.”