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US bill set to ease Cuba travel US bill aims to ease Cuba travel
(about 6 hours later)
The US House of Representatives is due to vote on a bill that would lead to the easing of restrictions on Cuban-Americans wanting to travel to Cuba. The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that should lead to the easing of restrictions on Cuban-Americans wanting to travel to Cuba.
The provisions are part of a $410bn (£283bn) bill before the House to fund federal government departments until September, the end of the fiscal year. The provisions are part of a spending bill and must pass in the Senate - where it faces some opposition - before it becomes law.
Republicans say the bill is excessive but it is expected to pass, with the Senate due to vote next week. The bill would allow Cuban-Americans to visit Cuba once a year instead of once every three years.
On Thursday, President Barack Obama is to unveil his first full budget. Meanwhile France has sent a former Socialist minister as envoy to Cuba.
The "omnibus" spending package being considered by the House has been described by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as "last year's unfinished business". Embargo moves
It combines nine appropriations bills that were held up in 2008 amid disagreements along party lines over its scale and scope. class="lp" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/default.stm">HAVE YOUR SAYDemocracy without the free will of people defeats even its own definitionMuhammad Saeed, Islamabad, Pakistan class="" href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=6106">Send us your comments
Former President George W Bush had threatened to use his veto to block the bill, which funds the annual operating budgets of every Cabinet department except Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans' Affairs. The measures announced in the US bill represent a first move in broader efforts to ease the US trade embargo and end travel restrictions for all Americans.
Most of the departments have been funded by a stopgap measure that expires on 6 March. President Obama has said that the trade embargo against Cuba should stay in place as it increases pressure for democratic reforms.
The bill contains provisions that would prevent the federal government from spending any of its budget to enforce rules brought in under President Bush in 2004 that restrict Cuban-Americans to visiting Cuba once every three years. However, under the bill, Cuban Americans should be able to spend $170 a day on the island, more than three times the current daily limit of $50.
Embargo It also creates a general travel licence for Americans who sell food and medical supplies to Cuba.
President Obama has signalled that he will sign the legislation, which also still has to pass the Senate. As well, it should allow the Cuban authorities to pay for US products once they arrive rather than pay up front before they are sent, a move which some analysts say could boost rice sales to Cuba.
class="lp" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/default.stm">HAVE YOUR SAYDemocracy without the free will of people defeats even its own definition.Muhammad Saeed, Islamabad, Pakistan class="" href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=6106">Send us your comments Francisco Hernandez, president of the Cuban American National Foundation, welcomed the news.
It would allow Cuban-Americans to visit Cuba once a year and spend $170 a day on the island, instead of the current daily limit of $50. "We have been asking for that since the [travel] restrictions were put in place," he said.
It would also create a general travel licence for Americans who sell food and medical supplies to Cuba and allow the Cuban authorities to pay for US products once they arrive rather than pay up front before they are sent. "We believe there should be more opportunities for Cuban families to connect."
These measures would represent a first move in broader efforts to ease the US trade embargo and end travel restrictions for all Americans. But Mr Hernandez and others fear the bill could run into trouble in the Senate.
The spending package contains thousands of specific projects for spending, known as earmarks, and is set to increase funding by $32bn, a rise of about 8%. Florida Republican Senator Mel Martinez opposes the changes and may try to stop the bill.
The $410bn is on top of the $787bn stimulus bill. Republican leaders say the omnibus bill directs much of the money to the same agencies that will receive funds under the stimulus. Rapprochement?
On Thursday, attention turns to President Obama 's first budget. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has sent Jack Lang, a former culture minister, to Cuba in an effort to strengthen ties with President Raul Castro.
He has said he will halve the budget deficit, currently some $1 trillion, by 2013 and that officials are going "line by line" through the federal budget "to eliminate wasteful and ineffective" schemes. Last year the European Union voted to lift sanctions on Cuba, sanctions which were imposed after the arrest of alleged government opponents in 2003.
Their removal followed the departure of Fidel Castro, who had ruled Cuba for nearly 50 years, and his replacement by his brother Raul.
"We thought it was the right time to reinvigorate French-Cuban relations, at a time when the European Union has resumed dialogue with Cuba, when Cuba is evolving slowly, too slowly perhaps, when the United States themselves are thinking about their position on Cuba," an official in the President's office said of Mr Lang's trip.
Mr Lang was culture minister in the 1980s, under President Francois Mitterrand, who had close ties with Fidel Castro.