A pair of Republican senators demanded Wednesday that the Treasury explain how it will carry out President Obama’s order to normalize relations with Cuba and lift sanctions imposed under existing law.
“We are deeply concerned that several aspects of the President Obama’s new approach to Cuba, especially those related to unilaterally easing U.S. sanctions, violate the letter and spirit of several U.S. laws,” wrote Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida in a letter to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew.
The senators focused on Mr. Obama’s announcements that U.S. banks can open corresponding accounts to operate through Cuban banks, telecommunications companies can build infrastructure and conduct business in Cuba, and American tourists can travel freely to the island nation.
All of these activities are prohibited under existing laws, the senators said.
Mr. Obama announced Dec. 17 that he planned to restore more normal diplomatic ties with Cuba, a communist country about 90 miles from Key West, Florida, that has been under a U.S. trade embargo since 1960.
Mr. Coats and Mr. Rubio said the president’s move to ease the embargo would “increase the moral and financial risk to the American taxpayer and financial system of doing business through Cuba’s government-controlled financial system.”
They demanded detailed answers to a long list of questions, including:
• What legal authority does the administration have to allow establishment of correspondent accounts in Cuba, and the use of U.S. credit and debit cards by travelers to Cuba?
• What legal authority does the administration have to allow U.S. investments in Cuba’s telecommunications infrastructure?
• How do certain travel activities, including staying at confiscated properties by U.S. travelers, not violate the ban on trafficking, and “indirect financing,” of confiscated property in U.S. law?
“The fact that the Administration has been unable to answer these and many other questions almost a month after the President’s announcement, raises serious concerns about the process which preceded it,” the senators wrote. “We thus would like to know whether the Treasury Department was even consulted regarding these significant policy changes regarding Cuba, and if so, on what date.”
After Mr. Obama’s announcement, the Treasury Department issued a statement that it would implement the new Cuba policy through regulatory changes, and the new policies would not take effect until after the regulatory changes were finalized.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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