The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee is optimistic that his Cuba travel and trade bill will pass. Stewart Doan reports….
Colin Peterson says he’s confident that he’ll have enough votes to mark up his US/Cuba Travel and Ag Trade Bill before the Memorial Day Recess…”I’m very close, or I may even have the votes right now to pass the bill, so it could be next week, or week after, we intend to bring that up.”
Currently, only a dozen other democrats on the ag committee are co-sponsoring chairman Peterson’s Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, lead co-sponsor Jerry Moran, a Kansas republican believes committee passage is still in doubt, saying….”that it’s my guess is that it very close, one vote one way or the other makes a difference.” Just one other ag panel republican has signed on as a co-sponsor.
The legislation would remove obstacles to legal sales of US farm products to Cuba and lift all travel restrictions to the island nation. Major farm and commodity groups back the bill and are working with Peterson to build support for it on the committee. |