Reid to visit Balkans with group of senators

Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2001 | 11:47 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is scheduled to travel to Kosovo, Morocco, Turkey, Greece and Portugal on Friday through next week while the Senate is out for a weeklong recess.

Reid, the Senate's No. 2 Democratic leader, will join Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and four other Democratic senators on the taxpayer-paid trip. A cost was not available.

The senators will meet with heads of state, ambassadors and business leaders to discuss tourism and economic issues and will promote American businesses.

Reid this year became a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense spending. It's important for him to view U.S. operations in the Balkans as background for funding decisions, aides said.

Lawmakers on the trip also will get briefs on national security by Turkish officials. Turkey is a key U.S. ally in the region. The U.S. Air Force based in Turkey, as part of a United Nations force, patrols a U.N.-mandated no-fly zone over Iraq.

The trip also allows Reid to increase his "portfolio" as an American statesman, aides said. Reid and wife Landra went on a congressional delegation trip to India, Pakistan, Egypt and Nepal in January 2000, when relations between long-time rivals India and Pakistan were especially strained.

Reid traveled to Bosnia in 1996 to examine the role of U.S. soldiers as peace keepers.