Planning for the big take over should Castro kick.

WASHINGTON - In the first vote on Cuba legislation under a Democrat-controlled Congress, the House on Thursday easily approved a big increase in money for U.S. programs that support dissidents on the island.

The House also approved a proposal that would provide Voice of America with $10 million to bolster its broadcasts to Venezuela, where news media freedoms have been seen as under attack by leftwing President Hugo Chavez.

And the House was expected to pass late Thursday a proposal to make big cuts in military aid to Colombia - in the most significant change to the $5 billion U.S. anti-drug trafficking program known as Plan Colombia since its inception in 2000. However, Republicans critical of the proposal agreed to let the bill pass while planning to challenge it later during House-Senate negotiations.

The $34 billion State Department foreign aid bill for 2008 provided several avenues for Democrats to challenge some of President Bush’s policies on Colombia and Cuba, with the administration and its backers scoring a victory on Cuba.

President Bush requested almost $46 million for Cuba democracy programs for the 2008 fiscal year, a five-fold jump from the 2007 level, in keeping with a recommendation by an interagency commission that said the money would help bring democracy to the island.

Democrats on an appropriations panel that oversees State Department foreign aid bills - chaired by Rep. Nita Lowey of New York - had cut the aid level back to $9 million, arguing there was not enough oversight to ensure the money would be well spent.

An amendment proposed by Cuban-American Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican, and Albio Sires, a New Jersey Democrat, to adopt the original Bush funding request passed by a 254-170 vote, with 66 Democrats joining 188 Republicans in support.

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