releases: https://lee.house.gov/news/press-releases/barbara-lee-works-to-lift-restrictions-on-student-travel-to-cuba
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://lee.house.gov/news/press-releases/barbara-lee-works-to-lift-restrictions-on-student-travel-to-cuba | Barbara Lee Works to Lift Restrictions on Student Travel to Cuba | 2005-06-30 | 2005 | 2005-06 | Democrat | House | CA | Barbara Lee | L000551 | lee.house.gov | legacy | 06.30.05 Barbara Lee Works to Lift Restrictions on Student Travel to Cuba (Washington, DC) Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) sponsored a measure to lift restrictions on student travel to Cuba today.This is an issue of freedom for our students to travel and gain invaluable experience and educational opportunity that only international study-abroad programs can provide, said Lee. Lee's amendment to the Treasury-Transportation-Housing and Urban Development-Judiciary-DC (TTHUD) Appropriations bill, prohibited the use of funds to enforce regulations issued in June 2004 that affect students who study abroad or seek other educational opportunities in Cuba. The amendment was defeated by a vote of 187 to 233. Last year, the House passed Lee's amendment by voice vote, but it was stripped during conference process. The July 2004 regulations limited licenses to study abroad in Cuba to undergraduate and graduate students, shortened the duration of the license from two years to one year, required students who use an institution's travel license to be enrolled in that institution, and required courses of study at Cuban educational institutions to be at least 10 weeks in duration. As a result of the new regulations, over ninety percent of U.S.-Cuba exchange programs have now been cancelled and as a result the Emergency Coalition to Defend Educational Travel (ECDET), a group composed of nearly 400 professors from across the country, has been established to fight for American students' rights to travel. Lee will continue to push the new education regulations by pushing for congressional support of H.R. 3064, the Pursuit of International Education Act of 2005 (P.I.E). Like the amendment, this legislation will ensure that every American student is entitled to their piece of the P.I.E. Cutting off educational exchange simply doesn't make any sense, said Lee. It limits the educational opportunities for U.S. students and shuts down fruitful intellectual and cultural exchange. In 1963, Attorney General Robert Kennedy sought to lift the U.S. travel ban to Cuba. He believed that the travel ban was inconsistent with our views of a free society. And now more than forty-years later, we are still wasting precious resources and time debating an outdated policy from a bygone era." ### Next Article | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |