Global Policy Forum

Washington - A proposal to allow U.S. food and medicine sales to Cuba, derided as a plum to the island's communist President Fidel Castro, was killed by a House-Senate panel Thursday. The negotiating committee cleared a $69 billion agriculture funding bill for floor votes after removing -- at the direction of Republican leaders -- language to exempt food and medicine from unilateral U.S. embargoes, including sanctions dating from the early 1960s against Cuba.

As a piece of legislation that both parties in Congress wanted to complete before the end of the fiscal year Thursday, the funding bill presented a prime opportunity to rewrite U.S. policy on trade sanctions. Senators voted, 70-28, for the blanket exemption last month. Anti-Castro hawks in the House of Representatives objected to any relaxation in the embargo. After a week-long stalemate, Republican leaders decided the provision would have to be scrapped to avoid possible defeat of the bill. It took two days to win agreement from negotiators.

The bill was likely to be called for debate in the House Friday under rules that routinely bar amendments, meaning proponents could not try to revise the bill. It was the second time in a year that a proposal to exempt food and medicine from U.S. embargoes foundered during House-Senate negotiations on a final version of an agriculture spending bill. Last year's sticking point also was trade with Cuba.

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