(VOVworld) – By a vote of 18 to 12, the US Senate Appropriations Committee voted Thursday to lift a decades-long US ban on travel to Cuba.

Tourists take pictures next to some classic vehicles in a Havana street in Cuba earlier this month (Photo: EPA)

4 Republicans joined 14 Democrats in approving the measure. This was the first bill passed by a US Senate committee since US President Barack Obama announced the normalization of diplomatic relations with Cuba last December. The bill will now go to the US Senate for discussion and vote.