By Mark Hollis
Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida House and Senate gave tentative approval Wednesday to bills by South Florida legislators to restrict students and professors at state-run colleges and universities from using taxpayer funds to travel to Cuba and five other nations on the federal government's terrorist watch list.

House and Senate bills that are expected to pass both chambers as early as today would bar Florida universities and colleges from sponsoring or promoting trips to Cuba, even for academic research missions. Critics have warned that the legislation could impede academic freedom.

But Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican who represents portions of Broward County and is the House sponsor of HB 1199, defended that move as step that will put financial and political pressure on President Fidel Castro.

He also said it would prevent college students and faculty from "being used as pawns'' by the Cuban government.

Rivera said arrests of Florida International University professor Carlos M. Alvarez and his wife, Elsa, an FIU counselor, who were accused of being agents for Cuba for more than two decades, compelled him to file the bill.

The legislation would ban colleges and universities from using any state funds, as well as private donations and grants, to ``implement, organize, direct, coordinate, or administer activities related to involving travel to a terrorist state.''

The proposal uses the U.S. State Department list to define terrorist states, including Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.

House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City, said, "Sometimes, you just have to put your foot down, and say, we are not going to spend money having professors spend money in terrorist countries."

Mark Hollis can be reached at mhollis@sun-sentinel.com or 850-224-6214.