Obama renews Cuban embargo for another year
By Anya Landau French
Well, I can’t say it was any big surprise. Yesterday, President Obama renewed his authority under the otherwise defunct Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA) of 1917, which would have otherwise expired on September 14, 2010. In plain English, President Obama renewed the U.S. embargo on Cuba for another year.
Bear with me as I wonk out for just a moment, and recall how I explained this obscure presidential declaration last year:
Keep in mind that everything the President – any US President – does must have its foundation in some law giving the office broad or specific authority to act. Back when President Kennedy first declared the embargo, he had broad authority to declare national emergencies and leave them there – often far past their use and beyond the reach of congressional oversight.
So, in 1977, Congressional scaled back that authority for future national emergencies; but it grandfathered in existing authorities (such as the one for the Cuba embargo) as long as the President determined, on a yearly basis, that continued exercise of that authority was still in the national interest. President George W. Bush last signed this determination on September 12, 2008. (Note that Cuba is the only country against which sanctions derived from the 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act are still in place.)
And so for close to 3 decades now, the embargo remains in place because of a yearly presidential determination that it ought to.
