Republicans won’t challenge Cuba’s removal from terrorism list

Republicans won't challenge Cuba's removal from terrorism list
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD MWHITEFIELD@MIAMIHERALD.COM
04/23/2015 9:36 AM 04/23/2015 9:16 PM

Republicans say they will not mount a challenge to President Barack
Obama's plan to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

South Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen met with congressional
colleagues last week to map strategy to prevent the de-listing and had
planned to introduce a bill this week. On Thursday, she changed course.

"A joint resolution to repeal President Obama's de-listing of Cuba from
the state sponsor of terrorism list would not have the far-ranging
implications that many had assumed it would," she said.

Legally, Ros-Lehtinen said, Congress can't prevent the White House from
taking Cuba off the list because not all the statutes that govern
designation of a country as a state sponsor of terrorism provide a way
for Congress to block a de-listing.

"Of the three statutes that authorize the designation of Cuba as a state
sponsor of terrorism, the Arms Control Export Act contains the
legislative mechanism for Congress to block a delisting," Ros-Lehtinen
said, but neither the Export Administration Act nor the Foreign
Assistance Act have such mechanisms.

Ros-Lehtinen said that 35 co-sponsors had signed on to draft legislation
before the decision was made not to go forward with it.

"Instead, we are working to ensure that any legislation passed through
Congress that relates to Cuba is substantive and will have significant
legal effect," she said.

The congresswoman said that she and her colleagues plan to file "broader
legislation regarding Cuba that will help ensure that U.S. national
security is protected and that our nation continues to advocate for
human rights on the island."

Obama sent a report to Congress on April 14 saying he planned to take
Cuba off the list because it had provided no support for international
terrorism during the past six months and that the Cuban government had
given assurances that it wouldn't support acts of international
terrorism in the future.

Cuba was placed on the list in 1982 because of its effort to promote
armed revolution in Latin America. Cuban officials have always contended
that Cuba never should have been put on the list.

By law, the president was required to inform Congress 45 days before his
directive went into effect. Now, with no challenges, Cuba is expected to
be removed from the list in late May.

As part of the White House's new Cuba policy announced Dec. 17, the
United States and Cuba are negotiating to open embassies and reestablish
diplomatic ties. The Republican decision avoids protracted wrangling
over the terrorism issue in Congress.

But several other Cuba-related bills have been introduced, including one
that ties improvement in Cuba's human rights record to any further
removal of U.S. sanctions against the island and another by farm-state
senators that would lift the ban on private banks and companies offering
credit for agricultural exports to Cuba.

Because many of the measures that would sanction Cuba are codified in
other laws, Ros-Lehtinen said "removing Cuba from the state sponsor of
terrorism list does not truly lift significant sanctions."

Washington attorney Stephen F. Propst said that Cuba's potential removal
from the terror list is an important step in the U.S.-Cuba normalization
process and has symbolic significance, but it will have limited
immediate impact on economic activity between the United States and Cuba.

Source: Republicans won't challenge Cuba's removal from terrorism list |
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article19296324.html