U.S. Senate to Discuss Formation of Bipartisan Commission on Cuba
With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff. For the story behind the story... NewsMax.com. Wednesday June 21, 2000; 12:03 AM EDT
A proposal to set up a bipartisan national commission to review the effectiveness of the 38-year U.S. trade embargo on Cuba was submitted on Tuesday for debate in the Senate.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., a co-sponsor along with Sen. John Warner, R-Va., urged fellow senators to approve the measure, saying that the legislation should be treated as a non-partisan issue.
The proposal, which will be debated during the opening two hours of the session, will meet with firm opposition from a number of Republicans leaders, including Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., whose constituents include many hard-line Cuban exiles who vehemently support the continuation of the embargo.
Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., of Cuban descent and the fourth ranking Hispanic in Congress, said he opposed the proposal and described it as a veiled attempt on Dodd's part to end the embargo.
The Dodd-Warner proposal reaches the Senate floor as Congress examines a separate measure that would allow for the sale of foodstuffs and medicines to the Caribbean nation.
Dodd said that the 12-member bipartisan commission should discuss whether Cuba represents a threat to U.S. national security and whether the embargo continues to fulfill the function for which it was imposed in 1962.
The commission would be responsible for presenting a report of its findings to Congress and the president within 225 days of its formation.
DOJ to Court: No Rehearing for Elian Relatives
UPI. Tuesday, June 20, 2000
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department, as expected, told a federal appeals court in Atlanta Tuesday that the Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez should not be given a rehearing. If the court agrees with the department, Elian's remaining time in the United States might be very short.
A three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled unanimously June 1 against the relatives in their attempt to keep the 6-year-old boy from returning to Cuba with his father.
If the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refuses to grant a rehearing, only the Supreme Court could block the boy's departure with his father. A refusal would mean that the court's June 1 order would be implemented in a week.
Attorney General Janet Reno has said an administrative restriction on Elian's leaving the country would end once the order goes into effect.
Elian was found in an inner tube off the coast of Florida on Thanksgiving Day after a rickety ship capsized. The boy's mother and others were drowned in their attempt to flee from Cuba to the United States.
Though Elian's Cuban father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, is trying to return him to Cuba, the boy's Miami relatives, led by great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, are waging a fierce court battle to keep him in the United States.
Federal agents forcibly removed the boy from Lazaro's Miami home April 22, where he had been placed in temporary custody after the shipwreck. Elian and his immediate family have been living in a private home in Washington while Juan Miguel waits for court approval to return to Cuba.
Much of the argument in the Justice Department's Tuesday filing dealt with how much "deference" the courts should give to executive branch decisions.
Lawyers for the Miami relatives had argued earlier that a recent Supreme Court decision, Christensen vs. Harris County, restricts the application of an earlier precedent, 1984's Chevron vs. Natural Resources Council.
Chevron generally requires the courts to defer to a federal agency's interpretation of law if it is reasonable. Lawyers for the Miami relatives contended that under Christensen, Chevron deference is only due a federal agency when it acts "through formal adjudication or notice-and-comment
rulemaking."
In other words, the courts would only have to show high deference to an agency when it was acting through an official process.
But Justice Department lawyers argued in Tuesday's filing that Chevron requires such high deference even when informal processes are used to reach decisions.
The department said it has not "refused" to grant Elian Gonzalez a hearing for political asylum.
"Elian himself could not file one," the department filing said; "the adult with responsibility for Elian [his father] wished that one not be filed; and the attorney general is not required under any provision of law to permit some other adult to file an application for Elian,"
unless there was some evidence that the interests of Elian and his father were so far apart "that the parent's presumed authority should be disregarded."
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