Welch Welcomes Biden Admin’s Long-Overdue Actions to Remove Some Sanctions Against Cuba

Welch Called for Admin to Remove Cuba from List of State Sponsors of Terrorism in December WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) released the following statement in response to congressional notification of the Biden Administration’s shift in United States-Cuba relations: “I welcome the Biden Administration’s long-overdue decision to remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, which I, as well as my predecessor Senator Leahy, and other colleagues in the Senate and House have urged for years. Lacking any legal or factual basis, it has caused great harm to the Cuban people who, like migrants from other impoverished countries in the hemisphere, are leaving the island in droves to seek a better life in the United States. The President-elect should build on this opportunity to realign our policy with our allies by spurring U.S. and foreign investment and helping Cuba’s struggling entrepreneurs. It would be a mistake for the Trump Administration to make a mockery of the terrorism list by adding Cuba once again.” Last month, on the ten-year anniversary of the Obama-Biden Administration’s normalization agreement with Cuba, Senator Welch led his colleagues in calling on President Biden to restore two key aspects of the policy of the Obama-Biden Administration towards Cuba: removing Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, and restoring the right of Americans to travel freely to Cuba. ###