FL Lawmakers Could Ban University Trips to Cuba

[magbana]

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/more/story/987461.html

MH: Lawmakers could ban university trips to Cuba
Posted by: "Walter Lippmann" [e-mail] walterlx
Tue Apr 7, 2009 1:44 am (PDT)

("I may not be able to stop the Obama administration from coddling
the Castro dictatorship at the national level, but I certainly can do
everything possible to stop Florida's taxpayer money from subsidizing
a terrorist regime like Cuba," said Rivera, who is chairman of the
House budget panel in charge of schools spending.)
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MIAMI HERALD
Posted on Mon, Apr. 06, 2009

Lawmakers could ban university trips to Cuba

State universities and community colleges may not be able to use any state money to pay for research trips to Cuba, or even help pay the cost to organize trips to Cuba.

A Cuban-American legislator has placed a ban on the use of state money in the House education budget that will be voted on Tuesday. Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, and an ardent critic of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, sponsored a similar ban in 2006. But the most of that law was struck down last summer by a federal judge.

Rivera's move comes at a time when President Obama has proposed lifting some restrictions on travel to the island nation.

"I may not be able to stop the Obama administration from coddling the Castro dictatorship at the national level, but I certainly can do everything possible to stop Florida's taxpayer money from subsidizing a terrorist regime like Cuba," said Rivera, who is chairman of the House budget panel in charge of schools spending.

The provision tucked inside the House budget states that community colleges and state universities cannot use state money or student tuition dollars to "implement, organize, coordinate or administer" or support the activities of traveling to countries designated by the United States Department of State as state sponsors of terror. Because the ban is in the actual state budget it would be good for just one year.

There are four countries on the U.S. terrorist list, but the legislation is aimed primarily at Cuba.

Even before the 2006 law, most universities did not use state money to pay for trips to Cuba. Instead university researchers relied on private grants.

But the American Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of the Florida International University faculty senate, saying the way the law was worded it also prevented the use of private money for trips. Last August a federal judge struck down part of the law as unconstitutional. The case is still under appeal.

But Howard Simon, the executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said the wording in the House budget appeared to have the same effect as the previous law, saying it could prevent someone from even making a phone call from a university to book a trip. He predicted that the ACLU would file another if this latest ban is passed by the Florida Legislature.

"It's David Rivera playing the Cuba card to keep this country in isolation," Simon said. "He needs to get off this crusade. Burying our head in the sand in Florida is not doing a single thing to hasten democracy in Cuba. It is the U.S. national interest and interest of economy of Florida to learn what's going on."

Rivera, however, said he planned to "champion this issue until I take my last legislative breath." He said the ban is needed because there is no way to ensure that taxpayer money for offices and equipment wasn't used to help plan the research trips to Cuba.

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WALTER LIPPMANN
Los Angeles, California
Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
"Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo"
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