Brushing aside veto threats from the White House, the Senate joined the House yesterday in voting to end the United States’ long-standing restrictions on travel to Cuba. With 19 Republicans breaking ranks with the Bush administration, the Senate voted 59 to 36 to bar use of government funds to enforce the restrictions as part of a $90 billion spending bill for the Treasury Department and other agencies. The House passed a virtually identical proposal last month. The administration recently stepped up efforts to isolate the government of Fidel Castro and crack down on Americans traveling to Cuba, and has threatened to veto the entire bill unless the travel provisions are dropped. After the Senate vote, the White House said it “believes that it is essential to maintain sanctions and travel restrictions to deny economic resources to the brutal Castro regime.” Full Story