Cuba: Issues for Congress

Publication Date: January 2003

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Government

Type:

Coverage: Cuba

Abstract:

Cuba remains a hard-line Communist state, with a poor record on human rights. Fidel Castro has ruled since he led the Cuban Revolution, ousting the corrupt government of Fulgencio Batista from power in 1959. With the cutoff of assistance from the former Soviet Union, Cuba experienced severe economic deterioration from 1989 to 1993. There has been some improvement since 1994 as Cuba has implemented limited reforms.

Since the early 1960s, U.S. policy toward Cuba has consisted largely of isolating the island nation through comprehensive economic sanctions. The Bush Administration has essentially continued this policy. The principal tool of policy remains comprehensive sanctions, which were made stronger with the Cuban Democracy Act (CDA) in 1992 and the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act in 1996, often referred to as the Helms/Burton legislation. Another component of U.S. policy consists of support measures for the Cuban people, including private humanitarian donations and U.S.-sponsored radio and television broadcasting to Cuba. In May 2002, President Bush announced a new initiative that includes several measures designed to reach out to the Cuban people.

There appears to be broad agreement on the overall objective of U.S. policy toward Cuba -- to help bring democracy and respect for human rights to the island. But there are several schools of thought on how to achieve that objective. Some advocate a policy of keeping maximum pressure on the Cuban government until reforms are enacted, while continuing current U.S. efforts to support the Cuban people. Others argue for an approach, sometimes referred to as constructive engagement, that would lift some U.S. sanctions that they believe are hurting the Cuban people, and move toward engaging Cuba in dialogue. Still others call for a swift normalization of U.S.-Cuban relations by lifting the U.S. embargo. Policy debate in the past several years has focused on whether to maintain U.S. restrictions on food and medical exports as well as on travel to Cuba.

Legislative initiatives introduced in the 107th Congress reflected these divergent views on the direction of U.S. policy toward Cuba and also covered a range of issues including human rights, food and medical exports, travel restrictions, drug interdiction cooperation, and broadcasting to Cuba. Many of these will likely be introduced in the 108th Congress. In the second session of the 107th Congress, the House version of the FY2003 Treasury Department appropriations bill, H.R. 5120, included three Cuba provisions that would have eased restrictions on travel, remittances, and U.S. agricultural sales to Cuba; the Senate version of the bill, S. 2740, as reported out of committee, would have eased restrictions on travel to Cuba. Final action on the measure was not completed before the end of the 107th Congress. In addition to early action on completion of the FY2003 Treasury Department measure, the 108th Congress will face action on the FY2003 Foreign Operations appropriations, which would fund human rights and democracy projects for Cuba, and the FY2003 Commerce, Justice, State and Related Agencies appropriations, which funds Radio and TV Marti broadcasting to Cuba. This report will be updated regularly to track legislative initiatives and developments in U.S. relations with Cuba.