MIAMI (Reuters) - Two pro-embargo Democrats said on Friday they plan to introduce a bill that would bar U.S. companies from lobbying for a change in U.S. policy toward Cuba as part of lucrative deals to sell food to the communist island.
Reps. Peter Deutsch of Florida and Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the first Hispanic to chair the House Democratic Caucus, said Cuban leader Fidel Castro's government was forcing U.S. companies to agree to lobby against a four-decade-old embargo in return for contracts.
"What happens here is they become an agent of a foreign government," Deutsch told reporters at the Miami airport.
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The proposed legislation, drawn up by Deutsch and backed by Menendez, the No. 3 Democrat in the House of Representatives, would penalize companies signing such commitments by placing a 100 percent tax on their profits from any Cuba deal.
Deutsch said the prohibitive tax would be as effective as a total ban. The legislators acknowledged, however, that nothing could stop companies from lobbying independently against the embargo, as opposed to being contractually obliged to do so.
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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=3946964
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