House Delegation Visits Latin American Countries January 9, 2012, 10:50 am House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio announced Monday that he is leading a small delegation of lawmakers on a six-day trip to Central and South America this week. Seven lawmakers are currently in Brazil, and they plan to visit Colombia and Mexico later in the week. The group consists of six Republicans, including Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and one Democrat, Dan Boren of Oklahoma, a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition. "The mission of this visit is to help strengthen ties between the United States and our regional trading partners to support further economic activity that will help create new American jobs," Mr. Boehner said in a statement. I look forward to discussing issues of mutual interest, whether it is jobs and the economy, energy, or trade, with leaders from these three nations. Also traveling are Representatives Doc Hastings of Washington, the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee; John Kline of Minnesota, the chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee; Devin Nunes of California; and Greg Walden of Oregon. The trip comes as the House plans to take up a component of the Republican jobs agenda, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, which party leaders say will create more jobs in the United States by expanding domestic energy production and using those revenues to finance high-priority infrastructure projects like roads and bridges. The delegation will be "visiting with American energy producers forced to create jobs overseas by excessive Washington laws that keep most U.S. energy resources on federal lands under lock and key," Mr. Boehner said. Also this week, a nine-member House delegation led by Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader, is traveling to the Middle East and Europe to address concerns about regional security and political unrest.