In Biden’s final days in office, legislation introduced to scrap Cuba embargo

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has introduced legislation that would end the trade embargo on Cuba and free Americans to travel to the Caribbean island for tourism. 

Wyden, the Senate Finance Committee’s ranking member, introduced the bill after Joe Biden in his last week as president said the U.S. was removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism after Cuba agreed to free a number of political prisoners. 

The U.S.-Cuba Trade Act would repeal the major statutes that codify sanctions against Cuba that impact trade, investment and travel. The act specifies that “travel to and from Cuba by individuals who are citizens or residents of the United States, and any transactions ordinarily incident to such travel, may not be regulated or prohibited if that travel would be lawful in the United States.”

The U.S. relaxed sanctions on Cuba under the Obama administration in late 2014, helping Cuba reach a peak of nearly 5 million tourists annually in the years following. The first Trump administration reversed those policies and they largely remained in effect under Biden. Visitation dipped to about 2 million in 2024, with hurricanes and an earthquake piling on top of political issues. 

“Attempting to isolate Cuba is a failed, outdated strategy that punishes the Cuban people and shuts off American influence and investment that could benefit both U.S. farmers and ranchers and Cuban small businesses,” Wyden said in a statement. “The Trump administration’s insistence on barricading Cuba while embracing authoritarian regimes in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere is backwards and counterproductive to American values and influence.”

Biden’s removal of Cuba from the terrorism state sponsor list is likely to be reversed by the Trump administration’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, whose family left Cuba in the 1950s. Rubio is a strong supporter of sanctions on the island’s Communist government. During Senate confirmation hearings this month, Rubio said, “There is zero doubt in my mind that they meet all the qualifications for being a state sponsor of terrorism,” reported the Miami Herald.