TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s Republican lawmakers want to send President Barack Obama a message that they don’t approve of his effort to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba.
The House Local & Federal Affairs Committee voted 8-4 along party lines Thursday to deliver a three-page message to the president and congressional leaders expressing “profound disagreement” with the decision Obama made in December to change U.S. policy toward Cuba.
Republican lawmakers said the decision only strengthens the dictatorship that brothers Raul and Fidel Castro have maintained since 1959.
Republican Rep. Neil Combee said he was born the same year the Castros took over the communist nation and what he’s seen since makes him sick.
But Democratic Rep. Kristin Jacobs said the United States has failed to force changes in Cuba and she supports Obama’s decision.
