Sen. Gregg Part of Bipartisan Trip to South America
Machu Picchu
New Hampshire Union Leader
Kendra Gilbert
Boston University Washington News Service
12-13-06
WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 – New Hampshire Republican Senator Judd Gregg will get a chance to bond with the incoming Democratic Senate leadership on a bipartisan trip to South America at the end of the year.
The bipartisan convoy – which includes Gregg and five other senators – will make stops in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, meeting with leaders in each country along the way, according to a statement issued by Gregg’s office.
Gregg was unavailable for comment.
Joining Gregg on the military-chartered journey are incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and soon-to-be Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. will also make the trip. And The Washington Post reported that Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. and Robert Bennett, R-Utah will round out the six-man group of senators.
Gregg’s wife Kathleen also will accompany her husband on the trip, according to Gregg’s office. Some of the other senators also will be joined by their spouses, along with aides and military personnel, The Post reported.
According to the statement from Gregg’s office, the six-day trip is “worthwhile substantively as these nations are important to the U.S., especially with the rising anti-Americanism being fed to the region by Hugo Chavez.”
Key issues to be addressed by the senators include trade, narcotics, economics and developing governments, the statement said.
Business aside, the group will make a stop in the Lost City of the Incas, better known as Machu Picchu, in Peru.
Gregg and his fellow travelers will have a chance to explore the ancient city, which sits nearly 8,000 feet above the Urubamba Valley on the side of a mountain ridge.
The isolated location should give Gregg a chance to get to better know his Democratic colleagues, which could prove important in the next Congress. According to the statement from Gregg’s office, bipartisanship “is going to be critical in Congress next year, which most people have signaled they want to see developed.”
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