Bob Menendez: “I do not think there is any Member of this House, including my dear colleagues from Florida, that still have family in…”

“I do not think there is any Member of this House, including my dear colleagues from Florida, that still have family in Cuba, but I do. So when people talk about some of these issues, they talk in the abstract. I deal with the reality. Every time I get up in this well and speak about issues that affect the people of Cuba, my family gets visited by Castro's rapid response brigade. My communications with them, which I always asked them never to let anyone know that they were my family, so in fact they would not be confronted with the realities they are confronted with today, being harassed, being denied employment opportunities, but they told me, ``We're not going to deny you, and we don't intend for you to stop speaking out.'' The fact of the matter is my distinguished colleague from Connecticut raises a point of view which I disagree with but respect. However, the facts are quite different. The reality is that the regime in Cuba has only changed out of necessity, necessity created by the loss of the Soviet Union's aid, $6 billion a year, at which time the Cuban people did not receive more food on the plates of Cuban families but developed the third largest military in the entire Western Hemisphere after the United States and Brazil per capita. Now that that money is gone, and with the legislation that we have passed, 3 dramatic things have happened.…”