1999 

January 5, 1999 - President Clinton declines the recommendation from 24 U.S. Senators requesting that he establish a National Bipartisan Commission to review U.S. policy toward Cuba. He also announces several new initiatives toward Cuba including allowing the sale of food to private, non-governmental entities in Cuba; and accelerating the processing of required travel licenses for authorized travel to Cuba. 

May 19, 1999 - During the Full Appropriations Committee consideration of the FY00 Agriculture Appropriations Act, Rep. Nethercutt offers an amendment to lift all unilateral sanctions on food and medicine. 

May 25, 1999 - Rep. Nethercutt offers a sanctions relief amendment on the House floor, but the amendment is blocked on a point of order. 

August 3, 1999 - The Senate votes 70 to 28 in favor of Senator John Ashcroft’s, R-MO, “Food and Medicine For The World” amendment which will permit the sale of food and medicine to Cuba and four other rogue nations 

August 4, 1999 - Amid objections by Sens. Connie Mack and Bob Graham of Florida to the “Food and Medicine for the World” amendment, Senator Ashcroft agrees to incorporate an annual licensing provision, that would apply to countries listed on the State Department’s annual list of terrorist countries. The Senate now passes the Ashcroft amendment by unanimous consent. 

August 4, 1999 - The Administration announces that New York and Los Angeles will be added to the list of U.S. cities authorized to provide direct air charter service between the United States and Cuba. Up until now only Miami was authorized to provide such service. 

September 13, 1999 - A conference committee is appointed to review and vote on a number of amendments, including the Ashcroft amendment, that have been attached to appropriations bill, HR 1906. The committee consists of Members from both House and Senate including the Members of the Agriculture Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. George Nethercutt, R-WA, introduces an amendment incorporating the Ashcroft Amendment but removing the licensing requirement and including a provision for government financing guarantees. The amendment is approved by the House conferees and is sent to the Senate conferees for a vote. The Republican leadership then submits a “leadership package” that carves out Cuba. The Senate conferees vote down the “leadership package” and vote approval of the Nethercutt amendment, insisting on the inclusion of Cuba. They then return the amendment to the House conferees for a final vote.

However the House Republican leadership, led by the opposition of Rep. Tom Delay, wishing to defeat the Ashcroft Amendment, suddenly orders the conference committee, which is preparing to cast a vote to approve the Ashcroft amendment, be shut down after only one meeting. Members of the House and Senate are outraged and three Senators take the Senate floor and call the maneuver a “hijacking” of the U.S. democratic system and demand that the leadership resign. Farm groups, including the Texas Farm Bureau, are also outraged, having met with Mr. Delay prior to this action, where they expressed the views of Texas farmers and their Representatives, that this bill should be allowed to go to a vote, since passage would be in the best interest of the agricultural community and the Cuban people. Rep. Nethercutt leads House Members in refusing to sign the conference report. After more than a week, a majority of conferees, under intense pressure from Rep. Tom Delay and the Republican leadership, eventually agree to sign the report. 


September 30, 1999 - After succumbing to the intense lobbying effort by Rep. Delay and the Republican leadership, the Nethercutt Amendment, incorporating the Ashcroft Amendment, is removed from the conference report, the conference committee report is taken, and the committee is dissolved. 

November 9, 1999 - For the eighth consecutive year the United Nations General Assembly, by a recorded vote of 155 in favor to 2 against, (United States, Israel), adopts a resolution on the need to end the embargo against Cuba and to repeal all laws and measures of an extraterritorial nature that affect the sovereignty of States and the freedom of trade and navigation, which is in conformity with their obligations under the United Nations Charter and international law. (Israel, the sole country voting with the United States, to retain the U.S. embargo, continues to be one of Cuba’s most significant investors and trading partners operating citrus farms and building real estate projects, including a recently completed major office park in Havana.) 

November 17, 1999 - A letter, signed by 220 Members of the House of Representatives is sent to the Speaker of the House, Rep. Dennis Hastert, stating that “We strongly support House action on a meaningful food and medicine sanctions reform bill this Congress and urge you to expedite consideration of such legislation.” Members stated “Congress should act to end such sanctions for three reasons; 1) Unilateral sanctions do not work because our allies freely supply the same products to sanctioned states; 2) Denying access to food and medicine is an abhorrent foreign policy tool; 3) Unilateral sanctions punish American farmers and depress American commodity prices by denying access to significant international markets.”