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The United States House of Representatives Appropriations Committee is attempting to enhance travel restrictions to Cuba as a result of two musicians recent trip there.
It has been four months since Congressional Republicans called for an investigation into Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s sanctioned excursion to the communist nation. Since that time Jay released the response record “Open Letter” and the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney even had to address the song during a formal press briefing.
Politico is reporting that on Wednesday Republicans on a subcommittee approved the Cuba provision into a larger $17 billion spending bill that funds the Treasury Department. Treasury is responsible for approving travel to Cuba. The department granted Jay and Beyoncé permission to visit the island nation as a cultural trip.
One Democratic member of the Appropriations Committee who opposes the restrictive provision believes it is just a reaction to the superstar couple and nothing more than politics to appeal to Cuban defectors in South Florida who typically vote Republican.
“This is the Jay-Z, Beyonce Bill,” said Rep. Jose Serrano of New York. “Absolutely [it’s a response to the trip], and it’s playing to the audience in Miami.”
President Obama closed the Cuban voting gap in Florida in 2012. Mitt Romney won 52% of the Cuban vote in the state compared to Obama’s 48%, but the President won 53 percent of Cubans that voted on the day of the election.
The subcommittee’s chairman Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) stated that he felt Jay-Z and Beyoncé where an example of how following the proper policy regarding travel to Cuba was being neglected.
“I think that if we’re going to say that we have this policy in place that relates to travel in Cuba that it ought to be enforced and that becomes a grey area where they’re probably not really following the guidelines,” said Crenshaw.
If the bill passes the full Congress and signed into law it would only allow travel to Cuba for educational exchanges that are connected to achieving an academic degree.
The new proposed travel restrictions come the same week Jay-Z releases his latest album Magna Carta Holy Grail.
