U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake doesn’t find much on which to agree with President Barack Obama, but the East Valley Republican on Thursday applauded Obama’s loosening of travel restrictions to Cuba.
For years, Flake was a lonely voice in Congress for opening travel between the United States and Cuba. Flake made no headway under former President Bush, whose administration made it even more difficult for Cuban Americans to visit family members still in Cuba or send them gifts and staples.
But Flake told an East Valley crowd of business and political leaders Thursday morning that he was “impressed” with how Obama handled the politically active Cuban-American community in Florida during the presidential campaign and with the first step the Democrat President took to ease travel between the US and Cuba.
Flake said he hopes the next step is to lift the travel ban completely. Americans should be able to travel without government restrictions, the former director of the Goldwater Institute, said.
