Charles Rangel: “let me once again thank the chairman of the committee and the ranking member for the bipartisan work that they have put…”

“let me once again thank the chairman of the committee and the ranking member for the bipartisan work that they have put into allowing this great bill to reach the floor. Mr. Chairman, I think this amendment is going to be a real win for America and a win for American farmers and a win for democracy. What it allows is that the people in Cuba can purchase hundreds of millions of dollars of goods from our farmers and be able to pay directly to U.S. banks without going through the red tape with the restrictions that we have on their visas and having to go to third countries. Close to 50 years ago, someone came up with the great idea that in order to get rid of Castro and the communist government, that we should put an embargo on that country, which, of course, included food products that our great farmers are producing. Well, what has happened is that Castro is still there and we have gone through 10 presidents, and we are the only country that it appears as though has this embargo, which is truly ineffective. Having said that, it would just seem to me that if we really want to win the hearts and minds of the people in Cuba, that we should make it abundantly clear that our greatest salesmen are our farmers, to be able to give food and nutrition to these people, and the money comes here and the food goes there. Hugo Chavez may be there trying to give them oil, but the poor people in Cuba can't eat oil.”