• Submitted by: Juana
• United States
• Politics and Government
• 06 / 05 / 2015

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The House of Representatives, with Republican majority, voted yesterday in favor of maintaining restrictions on travel to Cuba for Americans.The majority, with 247 votes in favor and 176 against, rejected a clause that affected a transport financing project related to Cuba, according to Associated Press. That clause blocks the standards approved in February to ease restrictions on travel and authorize flights between the US and Cuba. The rules adopted by the Government nullified the need to obtain permission from the Treasury Department for traveling to Cuba. Now the only requirement is to assert that the trip is for educational, religious or other lawful purposes.The Republican clause was written by Mario Diaz-Balart, who insisted that Obama is wrong to lift sanctions on Cuba. He also added that planes landing in Cuba do it in an airport that was partly owned by USA when the revolutionary government expropriated it. "What you say is it is OK to do business on a property that was stolen from Americans," he said.
Barbara Lee, Democratic Representative in favor of removing the Republican clause, said it is needed "an approach of the 21st century to this nation that is 90 miles from our costs. We are in 2015, not in 1960".

source: www.cibercuba.com