Senate GOP balks at Cuba embassy restrictions

Senate Appropriations State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., right, talks with ranking member Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., left, before the start of a markup of the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2016 on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 7, 2015. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Senate Appropriations State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., right, talks with ranking member Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., left, before the start of a markup of the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2016 on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 7, 2015. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

By Associated Press July 7, 2015 2 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – Fellow Republicans have stopped GOP presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham from using an annual foreign aid funding bill to block work on a U.S. Embassy in Cuba.

Graham, R-S.C., has made his defense and foreign policy credentials a pillar of his longshot campaign in a crowded GOP field and had said last December that he would use any means to stop the Obama administration from opening an embassy in Havana.

But the South Carolina Republican on Tuesday failed to amend a $49 billion foreign aid measure to stop the project.

Graham chairs the Senate subcommittee that oversees foreign aid, but he said he didn’t have enough support among the panel’s Republicans to endorse a House provision to block the construction unless the Castro government takes concrete steps to foster democracy.

“I don’t know if the votes are there on our side, quite frankly,” Graham said.