The US House voted last night to lift the ban on US citizens travelling to communist Cuba, stunning hard-liners and defying a plea by the Bush administration to retain harsh, 40-year-old sanctions against a nation it sees as a terrorist state.  In an unexpectedly lopsided and bipartisan 262-167 vote, the House approved an amendment by Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, to prohibit funds from being used to enforce the travel ban, effectively lifting it.

Since the amendment was attached to a Treasury Department and Postal Service appropriations bill, it had to pertain to spending to be considered in order.

“Americans can travel to North Korea and Iran, two-thirds of the axis of evil, but not to Cuba,” said Representative William Delahunt, Democrat of Quincy, MA. “That makes no sense, I would suggest.”