Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 9, 1993 TAG: 9304090433
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CONGRESS
DON'T THINK just because Congress is in recess that members of Virginia's delegation aren't hard at work. Several of them are roaming the globe on our behalf.Republican Sen. John Warner is visiting London, Paris, Frankfurt and Brussels. The itinerary of Republican Rep. Thomas Bliley of Richmond is London, Paris, Bonn and Frankfurt.
Democratic Sen. Charles Robb is visiting South Korea. Democratic Rep. Owen Pickett of Virginia Beach headed for Italy, Turkey, Syria, Israel and Morocco. GOP Rep. Frank Wolf of McLean is in Romania. Democrat James Moran of Alexandria is in Armenia.
Armenia?
So it's not Gay Paree - but that's the luck of the draw.
Moran, fitted with a bulletproof vest before he left, went to talk with officials of that crisis-ridden country about economic and humanitarian programs that might be needed.
Warner drew April in Paris because, as a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he's scheduled to meet there with U.S. and NATO officials on defense issues. The purpose of Bliley's trip is to study up on European-style health-care reform. He's a member of a House subcommittee on health.
Robb, who recently became chairman of the Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, was to meet with South Korean President Kim Young Sam. Pickett is traveling with other members of the House subcommittee on military installations. Wolf's trip, sponsored by the private Fellowship Foundation, is to discuss issues of religious liberty.
There are those who say such trips are only and purely perk junkets; who say our representatives should pay attention to problems at home and forget about what's happening overseas. These people are wrong.
Abuses happen, to be sure: Fact-finding missions to Pacific islands; trips with fewer business meetings than recreational diversions. But, as President Clinton observed in a speech last week to newspaper editors, foreign and domestic policy are increasingly "indivisible" in terms of national security and the global economy.
America has important interests abroad; it's important that legislators monitor such interests - when appropriate, firsthand.
Still, you have to give a little credit to Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke. We've learned he recently returned from a fact-finding mission to Glasgow.
Glasgow, Virginia, that is.