Byron Dorgan: “This amendment deals with language that was in the farm bill that passed the Senate and went to conference dealing with…”

“This amendment deals with language that was in the farm bill that passed the Senate and went to conference dealing with the ability to sell food to Cuba. As my colleagues know, we have had an embargo with respect to the country of Cuba for some four decades. That embargo included, for most of those four decades, an embargo on the shipment or sale of food to Cuba. That changed a couple years ago because my colleagues and I decided that an embargo ought not include an embargo on food shipments, that using food as a weapon is not the appropriate thing to do. So we lifted that embargo with respect to food, though it was lifted in a very narrow way. And the Cubans have been able to buy American food, especially following the hurricane in Cuba. They have purchased $75 to $90 million worth of food from this country now. It has to be purchased with cash, and they have to do it through a French bank in order to accomplish the transaction.”