ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:96030501.POL
DATE:03/05/96
TITLE:05-03-96  SENATE VOTES TO APPROVE CUBA SANCTIONS BILL

TEXT:
(House to vote March 6; Clinton supports measure) (460)
By Wendy S. Ross
USIA Congressional Correspondent

Washington -- The Senate March 5 by a vote of 74 to 22 approved
legislation to strengthen economic sanctions against the Castro
government following Cuba's shooting down last month of two small
unarmed U.S. planes. The vote on the conference committee report came
after two and a half hours of debate.

The House plans to vote on the conference report March 6. President
Clinton supports the legislation.

The legislation, known as the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity
(Libertad) Act, is designed to pressure the Castro government by
drying up foreign investment.

It allows Cuban-Americans to file lawsuits in U.S. courts against
foreign companies doing business in Cuba on expropriated land they
formerly owned.

Under a compromise worked out with the Clinton administration, the
president may suspend this controversial provision for periods of six
months.

The bill also would ban foreign "traffickers" in expropriated property
from entering the United States.

The measure also instructs U.S. executive directors of international
financial institutions to oppose loans or financing to Cuba and Cuban
membership until the U.S. president determines that a democratically
elected government is in power in Cuba.

The measure also would cut foreign aid to Russia and other former
Soviet states if they help Cuba, unless the president certifies that
this aid is important to U.S. national security and that the Russians
are not sharing intelligence with the Cubans.

The legislation also instructs the director of the U.S. Information
Agency to implement the conversion of Television Marti to Ultra-High
Frequency (UHF) broadcasting, as previously funded by Congress.

The legislation also condemns the Castro government's attack of
February 24 on the two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft.

Similar legislation was blocked last year in Congress when a number of
senators considered it too extreme. But following the shootdown, with
the death of the four people in the two planes, a wave of outrage
against Cuba in the Cuban-American community brought a quick
turnaround in Congress.

Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole, a co-sponsor of the bill, jetted
back from the campaign trail to voice his support for the bill, as
well as to get in a few political digs at President Clinton.

Dole, the leading candidate for the Republican presidential
nomination, said the Cuba bill would show Fidel Castro that "his days
are numbered" and it would "cut off Castro's foreign economic
lifeline."

Reading a letter from President Clinton expressing support for the
bill, Dole said the bill now had bipartisan support, but he couldn't
resist admonishing Clinton: "I think the administration has finally
gotten the message after cozying up to Castro....They have now seen
the error of their ways."
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