How the House spending bill could prove a lump of coal for Cuban-Americans' holidays

If Republican leaders in the House get their way in omnibus spending bill negotiations this week, hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans now accustomed to a freedom few other Americans enjoy – the right to travel to Cuba without US government intervention – could lose it.  A provision House leaders are pushing in final round negotiations this week would subject hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans to a Bush administration rule allowing them just one visit home every three years, no exceptions.  The measure, championed by a Cuban-American, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R) of Florida, is one of just a few controversial riders still to be worked out in order to advance legislation this week to fund numerous government agencies. 

President Barack Obama confidently campaigned on lifting family travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans back in 2008.  He delivered on that promise, and judging by the numbers of travelers, it was a politically popular move.  So when House appropriators originally adopted Mr. Diaz-Balart’s provision last summer, White House advisors threatened, in a formal Statement of Administration Policy, to recommend a veto if the final bill contained changes to the president’s Cuba policy. 

That should have been the end of it – as it routinely was whenever the Bush administration threatened to veto easing the Cuba travel rules, something the then-Republican Congress voted to do repeatedly.  It then fell to Republican congressional leaders to spare the president from actually vetoing a major spending bill over such a small – indeed, parochial – issue.  But while President Bush could then count on GOP leaders controlling both chambers, the Democrats only control the Senate. 

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