Paul Ryan on Cuba

Summary

In 2002, Congressman Ryan argued that the travel ban should be lifted and Americans allowed to visti Cuba. He noted that it has been proven that isolation helps tyranny and that it has been the policy of both Democratic and Republican Presidents to engage countries like the Soviet Union, China, and Vietnam and that Americans visiting Cuba would act as ambassadors of freedom.

In a series of largely symbolic votes, Congressman Ryan supported sense of the Congress votes that supported the people of Cuba over the regime in place there. In 2005 and 2007, he co-sponsored legislation to allow for the free travel of US citizens to and from Cuba. However, in 2007 he withdrew that co-sponsorship two days after adding it. Since that time he has not supported similar legislation.

The Flake Amendment

In July of 2002, Congressman Ryan spoke on the House floor in support of an amendment to allow for the free travel to and from Cuba by American citizens. He argued that America should engage the citizens there to provide them with an alternative to Castro.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

Mr. Chairman, the greatest antidote to totalitarianism is an informed mind. I would like to read a quick passage from an independent journalist, a dissident in Cuba, Oscar Espinosa Chepe: ``The passage of the House amendment last year to end the travel ban reflects a public opinion that every day understands more clearly that the effort to isolate Cuba has only increased the suffering of the Cuban people and strengthened the positions of the most recalcitrant elements in the Havana regime. Experience demonstrates that isolationism breathes life into totalitarianism. It helps it exercise control over citizens subjected to its power and to reinforce its monopoly over their minds. On the other hand, contact between peoples free individuals from falsehoods and from the lies without dignity to which they are obliged to lead.''

Mr. Chairman, it has been the American policy from Republican presidents and Democrat presidents that we engage; it has been in the American policy that we engage the Soviet Union, that we engage China, that we, just a few minutes ago, voted to engage Vietnam.

We should do the same with Cuba. The simple reason is that it has been a bedrock principle of American policy that travel is a device that opens closed societies. American travelers are our best ambassadors. They carry the idea of freedom to people from communist countries. There is no reason to make this exception for Cuba.

We want Americans to go down and exchange ideas, to show them the taste of freedom, to know what kind of brutal totalitarian regime they are living under. A people cannot rise up and ask for alternatives if they are not acquainted with those alternatives.

We are simply saying this 42-year practice of turning our backs, of looking inward, of being hypocrites while we go to China and Russia and Vietnam, must be ended.

With that, Mr. Chairman, I call for a yes vote on the Flake amendment. I encourage Members to vote for the Flake amendment.

Voting Record

Sense of House - Opposition to Repression

In September of 2005, the House voted on a sense of the House regarding the July, 2005, measures of extreme repression on the part of the Cuban Government against members of Cubas prodemocracy movement. The measure passed 393-31. Paul Ryan voted in favor of the sense of the House.

Sense of House on assembly

Expressing support to the organizers and participants of the historic meeting of the Assembly to Promote the Civil Society in Cuba on May 20, 1005, in Cuba. The measure passed 392-22. Paul Ryan voted in favor of the amendment.

Sense of Congress - Anniversary of Crackdown

Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the two-year anniversary of the human rights crackdown in Cuba Paul Ryan voted in favor of the sense of the House.

Sense of Congress - Human Rights Violations

In April of 2003, the House voted on a sense of the Senate regarding the systematic human rights violations in Cuba committed by the Castro regime; calling for the immediate release of all political prisoners and supporting free elections for Cuba. The measure passed 414-0. Paul Ryan voted in favor of the sense of the House.

Sense of House - Human Rights

In April of 2001, the House voted on a sense expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the human rights situation in Cuba. The measure passed 347-44. Paul Ryan voted in favor of the sense of the House.

Sponsored and Cosponsored Legislation

Session-110; Bill Number-H R 654; Export Freedom to Cuba Act of 2007 - Cosponsor

To allow travel between the United States and Cuba.

Session-109; Bill Number-H R 1814; Export Freedom to Cuba Act of 2005 - Cosponsor

Prohibits the President from regulating or prohibiting, directly or indirectly, travel to or from Cuba by U.S. citizens or legal residents, or any of specified transactions incident to such travel. Declares that: (1) this prohibition does not authorize the importation into the United States of any goods for personal consumption acquired in Cuba; and (2) the restrictions on authority contained in this Act do not apply in a case in which the United States is at war with Cuba, armed hostilities between the two countries are in progress, or there is imminent danger to the public health or the physical safety of U.S. travelers.

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