Today marks the 55-year anniversary of the first trade embargo the United States placed on Cuba.

The original embargo, put in place by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, covered all U.S. exports to Cuba except for medicine and some selected food items. Two years later, President John F. Kennedy expanded the embargo to cover U.S. imports from Cuba and then made the embargo permanent.

Icy relations between the U.S. and the communist country have recently begun to thaw. In July the United States reopened its embassy in Havana and Cuba, likewise, raised its flag outside of their embassy in Washington.

Despite the warming relations between the nearby nations, the embargo remains.

Days after the reopening of the embassies, Rep. Tom Emmer, a Republican from Minnesota, and Rep. Kathy Castor, a Democrat from Florida, introduced a bill to the House intended to lift the embargo. In an official release, Emmer said, “Along with the Cuban people, Americans are ready for a fresh start and new opportunities for increasing trade, advancing the cause of human rights and ushering in direly needed reforms.”

Since announcing his intentions to move towards friendlier relations with Cuba last December, Obama has asked congress to come together to lift the embargo.

Republicans have by and large been against lifting the embargo.

Presidential hopeful Marco Rubio has been particularly opposed to any such action. “I don’t know of a single contemporary, reluctant tyranny that has become a democracy because of more trade and tourists," Rubio said, according to U.S. News.

In September, Cuban President Raúl Castro told President Obama the only way to truly normalize relations between their two countries would be to return land currently occupied by the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay and to lift the economic sanctions. Castro said the "embargo that has caused damages and hardships to the Cuban people and affects the interests of American citizens must be lifted and the territory occupied by the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo should be returned to Cuba," according to NBC News.