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Cuba Travel, Money Restrictions Dropped From Fed Budget Bill

WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) - If you travel to Cuba to visit family, or send money to support relatives, you may be able to rest easy. A plan by a South Florida congressman to restrict interaction with people on the island, restoring restrictions to those imposed in the Bush administration, was cut from a $1 trillion US Budget bill.

If the bill is approved as proposed, the restrictions would not be re-instated.

The plan by Representative Mario Diaz-Balart would have once again limited family reunification trips to one every 3 years, tightened the definition of "family", and limited remittances, money sent to Cuba, to $1200 a year.

The proposal was attached to the budget bill, and some support for it was one of the items blocking passage of the spending measure. If it is not approved by Midnight Friday, operations of the US government could be shut down.

As part of a deal to eliminate the Diaz-Balart proposal, a second plan to force Cuba to pay in cash, upfront, for trade items allowed under the embargo was also eliminated.

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