{"id":146353,"date":"2025-11-25T20:49:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T01:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=146353"},"modified":"2025-11-25T20:49:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T01:49:31","slug":"congressman-mackenzie-joins-congressional-delegation-for-weekend-meetings-in-the-dominican-republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=146353","title":{"rendered":"Congressman Mackenzie joins Congressional Delegation for Weekend Meetings in the Dominican Republic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014 Congressman Ryan Mackenzie (PA-7), representing the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos, traveled to the Dominican Republic this past weekend as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation.<\/p>\n<p>The visit featured a packed schedule of meetings with Dominican officials and lawmakers. These included a breakfast with President Luis Abinader, a dinner with U.S. Ambassador Leah Francis Campos, a bilateral meeting with leaders of the Congress of the Dominican Republic, and meetings with Minister of Foreign Affairs Roberto Alverez Gil and other members of the President\u2019s cabinet. Congressman Mackenzie also took the time to meet with Dio Astacio, the mayor of Allentown\u2019s sister city, Santo Domingo Este.<\/p>\n<p>The Lehigh Valley is home to a large and growing Latino community, with a total population of about 150,000,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/data.census.gov\/table?t=Hispanic+or+Latino&amp;g=050XX00US42077,42095&amp;d=ACS+5-Year+Estimates+Detailed+Tables\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">including<\/a>\u00a035,000 Dominicans. Congressman Mackenzie serves on the House Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security Committees, as well as the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee. He was joined on the trip by Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast (FL-21) and Reps. Ami Bera (CA-6), Bill Huizenga (MI-4), Jimmy Panetta (CA-19), Michael Baumgartner (WA-5), Jefferson Shreve (IN-6), and Randy Fine (FL-6).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Dominican Republic is not just a neighbor, it is an essential economic and strategic partner,\u201d\u00a0<strong>said Congressman Mackenzie.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cOur bipartisan delegation appreciated the opportunity to meet with dozens of Dominican officials and lawmakers with whom we share critical interests on topics like trade, economics, and national security. These meetings offered us the chance to gain important insights on key issues, and strengthen ties between our two nations. I especially enjoyed meeting with the mayor of Allentown\u2019s sister city, Dio Astacio of Santo Domingo Este, to discuss the Lehigh Valley\u2019s strong cultural bonds with the Dominican Republic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Key topics at the meetings included trade and national security. The United States enjoys a large trade surplus with the Dominican Republic, and the two countries are partnering to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/world\/dominican-republic-says-it-recovered-cocaine-that-was-on-speedboat-destroyed-by-u-s-military\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">combat<\/a>\u00a0illegal trafficking in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur nation\u2019s ties with the Dominican Republic have never been more important,\u201d<strong>said Congressman Mackenzie.\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThe Dominican Republic is an important trading partner for our nation, and they stand on the frontlines in the fight against trafficking. As a member of the Homeland Security Committee and Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, I look forward to future cooperation between our two nations as we work to strengthen our economic ties and disrupt cartel operations. Thank you President Abinader, Amb. Campos, the American diplomatic staff, and all of the Dominican lawmakers and officials for their hospitality and dialogue. We look forward to working together to build the relationship between our nations and support our local Dominican community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the relationship between the United States and the Dominican Republic continues to grow, we appreciate the efforts by members of Congress to engage with local leaders,\u201d\u00a0<strong>said U.S. Ambassador Leah Francis Campos.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cWe look forward to working alongside congressional lawmakers to enhance our economic and security cooperation with the Dominican Republic. Thank you to Congressman Mackenzie and his colleagues for their commitment to this essential partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nArnaud Armstrong<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic\u00a0\u2014 Congressman Ryan Mackenzie (PA-7), representing the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos, traveled to the Dominican Republic this past weekend as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=146353\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Congressman Mackenzie joins Congressional Delegation for Weekend Meetings in the Dominican Republic<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Dominican-Republic.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146353"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=146353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/146354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=146353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=146353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=146353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}