Questions for Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama:
1) Public opinion polls indicate that two-thirds of Americans, including 55% of Cuban Americans, favor an end to all restrictions on travel to Cuba.
As President, when and under what conditions would you end a situation in which Cuba is the only country in the world to which US citizens and residents cannot freely travel
2) Until 2004, a wide variety of US non profit organizations and educational institutions were able to obtain licenses from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to send groups to Cuba. They included world affairs councils, universities, religious and humanitarian groups,art museums, elder hostel, professional associations, sports teams, and other forms of people-to-people exchange. By executive order, President Bush virtually closed this window for unofficial American-Cuban dialog.
As President, will you direct OFAC to return to pre-2004 policies and practice
If so, are you prepared to facilitate the rapid restoration of exchanges by instructing OFAC to issue a general license for any IRS recognized not-for-profit organization to send groups to Cuba
Will you direct OFAC to allow all US travel agencies to book such authorized travel instead of limiting that business opportunity to the current small number of registered Travel Service Providers
My grandmother just wants to visit her family back home before she gets too old. This whole policy is so outdated and hurtful to families that just want to be together.