President Obama Reauthorizes Cuba Listing On 'Trading With the Enemy Act'

President Obama Reauthorizes Cuba Listing On 'Trading With the Enemy Act'
By SERENA MARSHALL

President Obama has reauthorized Cuba's listing on the Trading with the
Enemy Act, a move that allows him to continue to use executive authority
to improve ties with the Communist country.

Obama's action follows a unilateral decision last December to
re-establish diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba, paving the
way to embassies being opened in both countries.

The act, which must be reauthorized every year, gives the president the
power to make changes to U.S. relations with listed countries, in this
case that is Cuba.

Obama "continues to believe Congress should lift the embargo on Cuba and
has already taken a number of steps to normalize relations and empower
the Cuban people," National Security Council spokesman Peter Boogaard
told ABC News. "That said, until the Congress acts, the Administration
will continue to take prudent and responsible steps to allow commerce
and travel, consistent with its authorities and within the continuing
constraints of the embargo."

Officials say that in order to do regulatory changes, like those taken
by the administration in January to allow expanded travel under
12-specific licenses, the president needs the authority embedded in the
Trading with the Enemy Act.

Without the act, the standing U.S. law with respect to Cuba is the
Helms-Burton act, or the embargo, which limits nearly all transactions,
travel and business with the island nation.

Congress has made no effort to change the embargo, although legislation
was introduced to committee earlier this year that would allow for all
travel restrictions to be lifted.

Last month, ABC News learned that the administration has plans underway
to make it easier for people to visit and do business with Cuba, through
regulation changes at the Treasury Department and the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA).

Those changes however, wouldn't be possible without the power granted to
the administration under the Trading with the Enemy Act.

Source: President Obama Reauthorizes Cuba Listing On 'Trading With the
Enemy Act' - Yahoo News -
http://news.yahoo.com/president-obama-reauthorizes-cuba-listing-trading-enemy-act-203504818.html;_ylt=AwrC1CotCvRV82cAeCDQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTBydWNmY2MwBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwM0BHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--