OUR OPINION: LEAVE U.S.-CUBA FOREIGN POLICY TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Like Energizer bunnies, bills relating to Cuba keep cropping up in the
Legislature. Memo to lawmakers: Leave foreign policy to the federal
government. Two years ago legislators banned state-university travel to
Cuba, and it has done Florida more harm than good. A Cuba bill under
consideration promises more of the same. Other bills are symbolic at best.
Academic travel
The most objectionable bill is the brainchild of Rep. David Rivera, the
Miami-Dade legislator who authored the 2006 ban on academic travel to
Cuba. This ban has stopped virtually all state-university study in Cuba.
As a result, grants that our schools can't spend to legally visit Cuba
now go to private schools and public universities in other states. A
federal lawsuit challenging the ban's constitutionality is pending.
Rep. Rivera's new proposal (H 671) targets travel agencies, but
Floridians who travel to Cuba on humanitarian missions or to visit
relatives pay the price. The bill will increase regulation, fees and
potential fines for firms selling trips to terrorist nations, a State
Department designation applied to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Sudan.
Businesses that sell trips to Cuba will have to pay the state a
registration fee of up to $2,500 and will be subject to fines of $10,000
for not disclosing Cuba travel activities, a violation designated as a
third-degree felony. Compare those requirements to a simple $300
registration fee for travel firms that avoid business with terrorist
countries.
The cost of increased fees and paperwork will be passed on to clients,
including South Floridians who legally travel to Cuba to visit family,
report news, support dissidents or aid churches. Federal limits on
travel to Cuba are harsh enough. The travel-agency bill only erects new
barriers for many Floridians whose travel promotes Cuba's transition to
democracy. This is counterproductive.
A bill by Eduardo Gonzalez, R-Hialeah, would ban U.S. doctors trained in
Cuba from practicing in Florida. But it exempts Cuban-born doctors who
have come to the United States. It seems to apply only to eight U.S.
doctors, none of whom live in Florida, who graduated from medical school
in Havana. The Legislature should have better things to do than pass
meaningless bills that could have unintended consequences.
`Free, fair elections'
At least the Cuba-related proposal by Rep. Luis Garcia, D-Miami Beach,
doesn't pretend to do anything. His bill (H 1253) simply urges the U.S.
government to encourage Cuba to hold ''free and fair elections.'' Isn't
that what the U.S. government has been trying to do for 49 years?
We appreciate the sentiment that moves Cuban-American lawmakers to push
Cuba bills. Beware, though, of the harmful consequences of such laws.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/489918.html
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