JBANC, 02 Oct 02 Washington - Sen. Robert Bennett, Utah Republican, announced on October 1 that he has joined the Senate Baltic Freedom Caucus. Senator Bennett recently visited Riga, Latvia, in July during the Summit of NATO aspirant countries. He was accompanied by Senators Trent Lott (R-MS), Craig Thomas (R-WY), Jim Bunning (R-KY) and Ben Nelson (D-NE). Senator Nelson joined the Caucus in August. Sen. Bennett is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee Foreign Operations subcommittee. That subcommittee oversees Foreign Military Financing funding and International Military Education Training funding to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and other countries, including other NATO aspirant countries. The Senate Baltic Freedom Caucus is made up of Members of the Senate with an interest in promoting good U.S. relations with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Caucus is co-chaired by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR). There are currently twelve members of the Caucus, evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. Other members of the Senate Baltic Freedom Caucus are: Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Barbara Mikulski (D­MD), George Voinovich (R-OH), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL), George Allen (R­VA) and Debbie Stabenow (D­MI). The Joint Baltic American National Committee, Inc. 400 Hurley Avenue Rockville, MD 20850-3121 tel. 301-340-1954 fax: 301-309-1406 e-mail:jbanc@jbanc.org