Building on a background as a public servant, university president, and teacher, United States Senator Roy Blunt was elected to the United States Senate in 2010.
Senator Blunt serves as the Chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee and as the top Republican of the Senate Rules Committee. He also serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee; the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee; and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He is also the top Republican of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.
As a former teacher and university president, Senator Blunt understands the importance of a high-quality education for every student.
In order to boost job creation in a struggling economy, it is vital to invest in a highly-skilled and highly educated workforce that can compete in an increasingly global economy. And Senator Blunt believes that state and local communities are best equipped to advance their own classroom priorities because decisions are best made by the parents and teachers who are closest to the students.
With job stability and education a top priority for Missourians, Senator Blunt looks forward to the opportunity to address the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization in the Senate, while working with Missouri’s teachers and administrators to craft the best possible solutions for our state.
Senator Blunt will continue to encourage common-sense policies that create opportunities for local educators to decide what is in the best interest of their communities, education systems, and students.
Senator Blunt understands that infrastructure is an integral part of our economy in Missouri and nationwide, and successful transportation systems connect people and communities to help workers and families succeed.
Missouri sits at the nexus of the United States’ highway, railway, and waterway transportation networks. The state has nine commercial passenger airports and 4,400 miles of main rail track that are operated by 19 different railway companies. In addition, Missouri is home to thousands of miles of pipeline carrying American energy to families and job creators. And the state is at the nexus of the Interstate Highway System, which includes two of the major North-South Interstates in the United States, I-35 and I-55; the major East-West Interstate, I-70; as well as 16 other major Interstates.
As a member of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Senator Blunt continues to play a key role in the federal oversight of our nation’s transportation infrastructure. He knows that our reliance on our highways, railways, and waterways will continue to increase as the domestic economy continues to recover and expand.
That’s why Senator Blunt is committed to ensuring that Missouri’s infrastructure remains a priority and that the interstate transportation systems are safe, secure, and equipped to support families, workers, and job creators across America. In the Senate, he is working with his colleagues to introduce bipartisan bills like the Partnership to Build America Act, which would help finance transportation, energy, communications, water, and education infrastructure projects while putting people back to work and improving U.S. competitiveness around the world.
In 2013, Senator Blunt also joined his colleagues to introduce the Building and Renewing Infrastructure for Development and Growth in Employment (BRIDGE) Act, bipartisan legislation to help address the nation’s alarming investment shortfall in maintaining and improving our transportation network, water and wastewater systems, and energy infrastructure.
The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers are critical to Missouri’s identity, culture, and economy. While our state benefits from fertile farmland, commerce, and water supply through these natural resources, during years of abundant rainfall or runoff, both in Missouri and upriver, our communities and farmers can face enormous challenges. In order to maximize the benefits and minimize the drawbacks of the rivers, it is essential for our national river policies and infrastructure to continue to be focused on flood control.
Protecting people and property should always be the primary goal in river policy. Senator Blunt co-chairs the bipartisan and bicameral Mississippi River Caucus, and he helped found the Missouri River Working Group. He will continue to push to make sure that flood control is the primary focus of the Army Corps of Engineers, the Corps budget, and any future river policy.
Senator Blunt is also a strong supporter of the small ports and harbors on the Mississippi River. He helped negotiate authorization for two new separate avenues for funding small ports dredging in the Water Resources Reform & Development Act of 2014. He also has worked to secure critical funding for the dredging of small Mississippi River ports in the past two Appropriations bills.
When a disaster surpasses the ability of states and communities to rebuild, Senator Blunt believes the federal government should prioritize spending to help the people whose lives and livelihoods are impacted. During his time in the Senate, he has fought tirelessly to ensure that Missouri gets its fair share of those federal resources specifically dedicated to disaster recovery.
In 2011, Missouri was faced with a number of challenges following devastating tornadoes and flooding. The E-5 tornado that hit Joplin in May 2011 took an enormous toll in terms of lives and property, while flooding on both the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers left huge swathes of farmland underwater for months on end. Senator Blunt spent a great deal of time traveling the state and meeting with families and communities impacted by these natural disasters, and their experiences led him to fundamentally rethink the way we view our federal disaster policies.
As a member of Appropriations Committee, Senator Blunt played an important role during the 113th Congress in securing critical funding for the Army Corps to restore flood control infrastructure along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and to rebuild communities impacted by the unprecedented flooding of 2011.
Advancing Pro-life Policies
Stopping Anti-Religious Liberty Obamacare Mandates
Protecting the Freedom of Religion Abroad
Funding Women’s Health, Not Planned Parenthood
Senator Blunt is a strong advocate for legislative policies which have fostered growth in the telecommunications sector and advancement in many different fields of technology. The rapid expansion in the telecommunications field has been a continuous driver of economic growth in the United States and World economics. The ingenuity of businesses, inventors and entrepreneurs in this marketplace, coupled with a light regulatory touch from the federal and state governments, has allowed this sector of our economy to prosper even as other industries struggle to recover from the recent recession.
As Americans continue to adopt newer and more advanced technology, Senator Blunt will strongly support streamlining regulatory burdens and allowing innovators to continue to grow this dynamic marketplace. He supports legislation to update duplicative and unnecessary regulations, such as S. 1434, the Data Security Act of 2011. He is also working to enact legislation that would decrease the deficit by providing for the sale of much-needed wireless spectrum to commercial telecommunications firms while protecting vital emergency broadcasting services.
Senator Blunt helped lead the fight against the Obama Administration and the Federal Communications Commission’s misguided “Net Neutrality” rule. He believes that this new regulation is a massive and unnecessary overreach into an economic sector which has continued to thrive, even as the overall economy slowed.
In 2003, only 15 percent of Americans had access to broadband. According to the Commission's own “National Broadband Plan,” as of last year, 95% of Americans now have broadband access. Competition in this field is robust, and Senator Blunt believes that in order to maintain this level of competitiveness, the federal government needs to stay out of the way of private industry and allow them space to innovate without the fear of burdensome regulations.
Senator Blunt understands that the government should work for Americans – not the other way around. That’s why he has introduced and co-sponsored a number of bills to reduce burdensome regulations and increase transparency and accountability in Washington:
Senator Blunt believes our top domestic priority should be growing more good-paying, full-time jobs for American workers. Every American deserves the opportunity to succeed, which is why Senator Blunt is fighting for a pro-growth, pro-jobs agenda in Washington.
Senator Blunt understands that no government program can replace what a good job means for the future of a family. Unfortunately, bigger government, more spending, higher taxes, and more debt has created an inequality crisis of opportunity in our country, and those policies have disproportionately hurt low and middle-class Americans for far too long.
Senator Blunt supports a number of efforts to increase economic opportunity for American families and workers, including:
As a father of four and grandfather of six, Senator Blunt strongly shares Missourians’ family values. He believes everyone should have the opportunity to succeed, is a strong supporter of the right to life, and supports pro-growth economic, energy, and regulatory policies that will encourage the creation of more good-paying, full-time jobs for workers today and future generations of Missourians tomorrow.
Many Missourians today face the constant pressure of balancing the demands of work and family; whether they’re caring for young children or aging parents. Senator Blunt co-sponsored the Working Families Flexibility Act, which was introduced by U.S. Senator Mike Lee (Utah) to help parents balance those demands by allowing private-sector employers to give workers a choice between monetary compensation and comp time when they work extra hours.
As a former university president, Senator Blunt also supports U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s (Fla.) Higher Education and Skills Obtainment Act, which would consolidate our nation’s higher education tax incentives and increase economic opportunities by encouraging Americans to pursue advanced degrees.
Senator Blunt has been recognized for his continued work to protect our nation’s children. In 2014, he worked with U.S. Senator Chris Coons (Del.) to successfully pass the reauthorization of the Victims of Child Abuse Act (VOCAA) to help child victims of violent crimes and ensure law enforcement officials can hold perpetrators accountable. He also supports U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch’s (Utah) bill to protect children who are the victims of child pornography.
To improve care for the nation’s sick children, Senator Blunt co-sponsored the Advancing Care for Exceptional Kids Act, which would help pediatric patients and their families coordinate care and improve health outcomes when facing medically complex conditions on Medicaid. He also co-sponsored the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Support Reauthorization Act, which was signed into law in 2014 and has helped increase the number of pediatric providers and addressed critical shortages in pediatric specialty care.
Senator Blunt continues to be one of the most vocal champions in the U.S. Senate for adoption. In 2015, he and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) reintroduced the Supporting Adoptive Families Act to help provide families and children with pre- and post-adoption support services. He co-sponsored the Uninterrupted Scholars Act, which was signed into law in 2013 to make school transitions smoother for children in foster care.
Senator Blunt helped introduce the Accuracy for Adoptees Act, a law that enables families adopting abroad to correct errors on their children’s birth certificates. He has been a vocal opponent of international bans on U.S. adoptions, and he successfully worked with his colleagues to pass bipartisan resolutions expressing concern regarding adoption suspensions in Russia and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 112th and 113th Congresses.
More American energy means more American jobs.
That’s why Senator Blunt supports an all-of-the-above energy policy to help create more good-paying, full-time jobs for workers and families in Missouri and nationwide. He believes the United States should use every available resource at our disposal, including clean coal, nuclear energy, and natural gas. And he’s in favor of increasing the exploration of oil and natural gas to reduce our dependence on foreign energy and grow the economy.
Washington shouldn’t pick winners and losers through legislative or regulatory policies that penalize low-cost energy sources that many Americans depend on. Missourians rely on coal for 80 percent of our electricity needs, and bad energy policies hurt the poorest families who can’t afford to pay more to fill up their gas tanks and heat their homes.
Senator Blunt has fought hard against the Obama Administration’s attempts to implement a cap-and-trade program, and he has introduced several legislative measures to prevent a carbon tax that would penalize the poorest Americans. In January 2014, Senator Blunt also led a bipartisan group of 21 Senators in sending a letter to President Obama urging him to stop punishing the most vulnerable American families with higher utility bills.
Unfortunately, the Obama Administration continues to try to circumvent the will of Congress by issuing burdensome regulations that threaten to significantly hamper our nation’s access to cost-efficient and reliable energy. As part of his ongoing efforts to stop executive over-reach, Senator Blunt co-sponsored legislation to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from taking over all private and state water in the United States, and he has been vocal in his opposition to the EPA’s proposed regulations on coal-fired power plants.
Senator Blunt is a strong supporter of shovel-ready projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline, which Congress passed in 2015, but President Obama continues to oppose. During the Keystone debate, Senator Blunt introduced two amendments to protect workers and families, including a provision blocking President Obama’s unilateral agreement on greenhouse gases with China, which is a bad deal for American workers and families.
The United States has long been at the forefront of innovation. As we compete in a global economy, Senator Blunt is a strong advocate for policies that boost economic opportunity to help American workers and families. That includes growth in manufacturing, telecommunications, and technology.
Missouri is home to world-class research institutions, universities, suppliers, manufacturers, and corporations which are ideally situated to propel us forward in manufacturing. Aerospace and transportation equipment are the two largest manufacturing sectors in Missouri.
In December 2014, the Senate passed the bipartisan and bicameral Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act, which Senator Blunt helped introduce as part of the appropriations omnibus bill. The passage of this common-sense, bipartisan jobs bill marked a big step for families and workers in Missouri and nationwide – not only to boost manufacturing and create jobs, but also to support innovation and manufacturing as we compete around the world.
The rapid expansion in the telecommunications field has also been a continuous driver of economic growth nationwide. The ingenuity of businesses, inventors, and entrepreneurs in this marketplace, coupled with a light regulatory touch enacted by Congress in 1996, have allowed this sector of our economy to prosper even as other industries struggle to recover from the recent recession.
As Americans continue to adopt newer and more advanced technology, Senator Blunt strongly supports streamlining regulatory burdens and allowing innovators to continue to grow this dynamic marketplace. He has co-sponsored a number of bills to update or eliminate duplicative and unnecessary regulations. And he supports legislation that would decrease the deficit by providing for the sale of much-needed wireless spectrum to commercial telecommunications firms while protecting vital emergency broadcasting services.
Today, 95 percent of American households have access to wired broadband, and 99 percent have access to wireless broadband. Competition in this field is robust, and Senator Blunt believes that in order to maintain this level of competitiveness, the federal government needs to stay out of the way of private industry and allow it space to innovate without the fear of burdensome regulations.
Senator Blunt understands that our modern economy is built on our ability to fairly trade and compete with other nations. As the global marketplace has expanded, Senator Blunt has remained a strong advocate for increasing economic opportunities for American enterprise all over the world. That’s why Senator Blunt has been a long-time champion of expanding trade opportunities between the United States and other countries, and he has remained focused on the benefits of breaking down trade barriers and streamlining trade policy for American businesses and our workforce.
Senator Blunt played a key role in ensuring Senate passage of trade deals with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea in 2011, which had been languishing in Congress for many years. These agreements will improve and streamline the United States’ trade practices with these three countries and zero out or eliminate a number of other tariffs on U.S. goods.
Missouri has more than 100,000 individual farms – the second highest number of farms of any state in the nation. Having grown up on farms in Missouri, Senator Blunt has always been deeply engaged in the policies that impact farm families and food supply nationwide. He knows that agriculture is a key driver in America’s economic recovery, which is why he voted for the Farm Bill to provide more certainty for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities.
Senator Blunt understands that Missouri’s farmers and ranchers face the challenge of feeding, fueling, and clothing a growing world on less land using fewer resources. That’s why Senator Blunt supports continued investments in agricultural research and technology. Sound agricultural research is the cornerstone to success in all aspects of the agriculture industry and helps make it possible for one farmer to produce enough food for 155 people. This research is also vital for us to meet global food demand, which is expected to double by 2070. Investing in agricultural research and technology will help us develop more efficient production methods, eradicate pests and disease, maintain a safe food supply, and enhance the nutritional quality of our diets.
Farm families face a number of onerous and costly federal regulations, including the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed water rule, which would significantly expand the authority of the federal government over water almost everywhere. Not only would this rule have a devastating impact on Missouri farm families, it would also inflict serious harm on productive activities like the construction of homes, businesses, roads, and even the development of energy. Senator Blunt has co-sponsored legislation to stop this and other burdensome federal regulations.
Americans work all their lives paying income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes – only to have the government raid their farms, ranches, and small businesses when they pass away. That’s why Senator Blunt supports efforts to repeal the death tax. The death tax is a devastating blow to farmers, ranchers, and small businesses who are trying to transition their family livelihood from one generation to the next. This onerous tax also disproportionately hurts states like Missouri, which relies heavily on agriculture revenue.
Agriculture is one of the few sectors of our economy that enjoys a trade surplus. U.S. farm exports help support more than 1 million jobs in America, and Missouri exports support 37,000 jobs in food processing, storage and transportation. Senator Blunt played a lead role in the passage of the free trade agreements with South Korea, Panama, and Colombia in 2011, which have provided new economic opportunities for Missouri farmers and ranchers. Senator Blunt will continue to fight to increase agriculture exports through additional beneficial free trade agreements and greater access to global markets.
In his previous role as the Ranking Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, Senator Blunt played a vital part in writing the Fiscal Year 2013 and 2014 Agriculture Appropriations bills. These bills maintained vital support for research and extension at land grant universities, capacity building grants for non-land grant colleges of agriculture, and competitive funding under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI). The bills also included funding for conservation activities, housing and business loan programs for rural communities, and domestic and international nutrition programs.
During the debate surrounding the Continuing Resolution (CR) in March 2013, Senator Blunt introduced an amendment to prevent unnecessary food inspector furloughs at meat, poultry, and egg production facilities as a result of sequestration. Without this amendment, USDA’s projected food inspector furloughs would lead to the closure of nearly 6,300 food inspection facilities across America, and more than 500,000 industry workers would have lost nearly $400 million in wages. That includes 43,000 Missourians working at 148 facilities. This amendment passed the U.S. Senate along with the FY13 Agricultural Appropriations bill on March 20, 2013.
Senator Blunt believes in President Ronald Reagan’s vision of “peace through strength.” He knows that the United States is an exceptional country and that the federal government’s number one responsibility is to protect the nation from enemies, both foreign and domestic.
As a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Department of Defense, Senator Blunt helps oversee the nation’s federal defense spending. He supports Missouri’s vital role in the defense of our country and is working to promote greater investment in our state. Missouri is home to more than 17,000 active duty servicemen and women, more than 8,000 civilian Department of Defense employees, and more than 20,000 reservists and members of the National Guard.
In 2014, Congress passed several key Missouri defense priorities that were championed by Senator Blunt as part of the bipartisan omnibus agreement. The bill funded several important defense priorities for Missouri jobs, including $337 million to keep the Air Force’s A-10 Warthog flying in FY15, and $1.46 billion for 15 additional Growler aircraft, which are built in St. Louis.
The United States has important obligations in other parts of the world, especially those places where terrorist organizations have historically been provided with aid and comfort while planning attacks against our homeland. He believes we cannot allow our necessary focus on these non-traditional threats to distract us from maintaining our nuclear deterrent and readiness in the face of more traditional foes. And he supports more robust sanctions policies to stop Iran from gaining access to nuclear weapons capabilities.
Senator Blunt also serves as a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and he previously served as a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). He understands that the challenge of fighting al Qaeda, ISIS, and other fundamentalist Islamic terrorist groups is critical to countering these very real threats to our nation today. He supports committing important resources for the operations to fight ISIS, and he continues to call on President Obama to outline a strategy for defeating these terrorists who wish Americans harm.
As the threat to our nation evolves, Senator Blunt has been a leader in calling for a robust and comprehensive look at the way we protect critical infrastructure and other networks from cyber-attacks. He has co-sponsored several bills in the Senate to address this important issue, and he continues to believe that the nation must aggressively address this challenge head on.
Senator Blunt is in favor of supporting our allies in parts of the world that share our nation’s vision for freedom and human rights. He supports maintaining strong US-Israel relations, which means ensuring Israel has the resources to defend itself and upholding Israel’s right to do so. Senator Blunt worked to pass the US-Israel Strategic Partnership Act, which was signed into law in December 2014. He has strongly urged U.S. officials to aggressively protect the rights of religious minorities throughout the world. In 2014, President Obama signed Senator Blunt’s bill, the Near East and South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act, into law. The law encourages the president to appoint a special envoy to promote religious freedom among religious minorities in the Middle East.
In addition to supporting our nation’s servicemen and women, Senator Blunt is a strong advocate for our nation’s first responders and law enforcement officials. As the co-chair of the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus, Senator Blunt has fought to ensure our nation’s law enforcement community has the appropriate resources to protect people and property, including through better mental health training and information sharing.
As Abraham Lincoln pledged during America’s bloodiest conflict nearly 150 years ago, we have a responsibility “to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.”
Senator Blunt is grateful for the sacrifices that America’s veterans and their families have made to protect and defend our nation. We owe our way of life, our safety, and our freedoms to the bravery and dedication of these American heroes. Since coming to Congress, he has been committed to ensuring that the needs of our military veterans are met to the fullest extent possible.
As a member of the bipartisan Congressional Veterans Job Caucus, Senator Blunt is committed to helping America’s veterans find good-paying jobs as civilians. He introduced the bipartisan “Hire More Heroes Act,” which was signed into law in July 2015 and encourages companies to hire more American veterans, while providing relief from the burdensome ObamaCare employer mandate.
Senator Blunt is also committed to helping our veterans get the best treatment available – both for the visible and invisible wounds they endure while protecting our country. One in two veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan wars say they know a fellow servicemember who attempted or committed suicide – an unacceptable fact plaguing our nation’s brave heroes. It is also estimated that 5 to 20 percent of over 2.6 million servicemembers who deployed to Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn have or may develop symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress (PTS).
Senator Blunt understands that PTS is treatable, and effective treatment begins with early, accurate identification. For this reason, he co-sponsored the “Mental-health Exposure Military Official Record Act” (MEMORy Act) to help servicemembers and veterans better track potential exposures during military service that could be later connected to mental health and traumatic brain injuries. He was also proud to co-sponsor the “Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans (SAV) Act” to improve mental health and suicide prevention resources for the nation’s servicemembers and veterans.
He co-sponsored the Senate-passed Veterans Affairs (VA) reform bill in 2014, and he traveled to VA facilities across Missouri to address concerns about delayed wait-times for our nation’s heroes. In 2014, Senator Blunt successfully included language from the “Caring for America’s Heroes Act” in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2015 to help bring mental health treatment for the nation’s veterans and military dependents in line with the way physical injuries are treated under TRICARE.
During his time in the U.S. House of Representatives, he worked to improve the system that denied veterans the ability to receive both military retirement and veterans’ disability benefits, known as “concurrent receipt.” He will continue to identify areas where changes are needed in our veterans' support system and work toward making life easier for veterans and their families when troops return home.
Senator Blunt believes every American deserves access to quality health care they can afford. Unfortunately, President Obama’s massive health care takeover has led to fewer choices, higher costs, and lower wages for families, seniors, and workers in Missouri and nationwide. That’s why Senator Blunt supports repealing and replacing this law with policies that make quality health care more affordable and accessible for all Americans, while upholding our traditions of choice and privacy.
Senator Blunt repeatedly co-sponsored legislation to repeal ObamaCare in its entirety. As part of his ongoing work to repair the damage created by this flawed law, he also supports efforts to repeal damaging components of the law, including the individual and employer mandate. He co-sponsored legislation to successfully repeal the costly “1099” mandate, and he backed the successful efforts to defund the CLASS Act.
Senator Blunt believes small businesses should have the power to pool together and offer health care at lower prices, just as corporations and labor unions do. He supports allowing Americans to shop for coverage from coast-to-coast by providing them with the flexibility to purchase their coverage in another state. Senator Blunt believes Congress should take steps to end costly lawsuits with medical liability reform, and he supports policies that encourage the coverage of young adults on their parents’ insurance plans through age 26.
Senator Blunt also believes that Congress must find ways to spend federal dollars more wisely when it comes to identifying and treating people who are mentally ill. In 2014, Congress passed a version of the Excellence in Mental Health Act, a bipartisan bill that Senator Blunt helped introduce to address our nation’s fragmented mental health system.
As part of his efforts to help America’s heroes, Senator Blunt co-sponsored the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans (SAV) Act to improve mental health and suicide prevention resources available to our nation’s servicemen and women and veterans. He also successfully passed provisions to help bring mental health treatment for the nation’s veterans and military dependents in line with the way physical injuries are treated under TRICARE.
Senator Blunt understands community officials need better tools to identify, understand, and respond to the signs of mental illnesses and addiction disorders. He also believes we should improve access to mental health services for people in the criminal justice system. Senator Blunt supports legislation to improve mental health first aid trainings, and he is working to ensure law enforcement officials have access to the tools they need to identify and respond to mental health issues.
Senator Blunt is the co-founder of the Senate Community Health Center Caucus, and he serves as the Honorary Co-Chair of the nonpartisan Alliance for Health Reform. He understands that we must fix our nation’s health care system, but President Obama’s one-size-fits-all government takeover is simply not the right answer.
Senator Blunt understands that infrastructure is an integral part of our economy in Missouri and nationwide, and successful transportation systems connect people and communities to help workers and families succeed.
Missouri sits at the nexus of the United States’ highway, railway, and waterway transportation networks. The state has nine commercial passenger airports and 4,400 miles of main rail track that are operated by 19 different railway companies. In addition, Missouri is home to thousands of miles of pipeline carrying American energy to families and job creators. And the state is at the nexus of the Interstate Highway System, which includes two of the major North-South Interstates in the United States, I-35 and I-55; the major East-West Interstate, I-70; as well as 16 other major Interstates.
As a member of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Senator Blunt continues to play a key role in the federal oversight of our nation’s transportation infrastructure. He knows that our reliance on our highways, railways, and waterways will continue to increase as the domestic economy continues to recover and expand.
That’s why Senator Blunt is committed to ensuring that Missouri’s infrastructure remains a priority and that the interstate transportation systems are safe, secure, and equipped to support families, workers, and job creators across America. In the Senate, he is working with his colleagues to introduce bipartisan bills like the Partnership to Build America Act, which would help finance transportation, energy, communications, water, and education infrastructure projects while putting people back to work and improving U.S. competitiveness around the world.
In 2013, Senator Blunt also joined his colleagues to introduce the Building and Renewing Infrastructure for Development and Growth in Employment (BRIDGE) Act, bipartisan legislation to help address the nation’s alarming investment shortfall in maintaining and improving our transportation network, water and wastewater systems, and energy infrastructure.
The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers are critical to Missouri’s identity, culture, and economy. While our state benefits from fertile farmland, commerce, and water supply through these natural resources, during years of abundant rainfall or runoff, both in Missouri and upriver, our communities and farmers can face enormous challenges. In order to maximize the benefits and minimize the drawbacks of the rivers, it is essential for our national river policies and infrastructure to continue to be focused on flood control.
Protecting people and property should always be the primary goal in river policy. Senator Blunt co-chairs the bipartisan and bicameral Mississippi River Caucus, and he helped found the Missouri River Working Group. He will continue to push to make sure that flood control is the primary focus of the Army Corps of Engineers, the Corps budget, and any future river policy.
Senator Blunt is also a strong supporter of the small ports and harbors on the Mississippi River. He helped negotiate authorization for two new separate avenues for funding small ports dredging in the Water Resources Reform & Development Act of 2014. He also has worked to secure critical funding for the dredging of small Mississippi River ports in the past two Appropriations bills.
When a disaster surpasses the ability of states and communities to rebuild, Senator Blunt believes the federal government should prioritize spending to help the people whose lives and livelihoods are impacted. During his time in the Senate, he has fought tirelessly to ensure that Missouri gets its fair share of those federal resources specifically dedicated to disaster recovery.
In 2011, Missouri was faced with a number of challenges following devastating tornadoes and flooding. The E-5 tornado that hit Joplin in May 2011 took an enormous toll in terms of lives and property, while flooding on both the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers left huge swathes of farmland underwater for months on end. Senator Blunt spent a great deal of time traveling the state and meeting with families and communities impacted by these natural disasters, and their experiences led him to fundamentally rethink the way we view our federal disaster policies.
As a member of Appropriations Committee, Senator Blunt played an important role during the 113th Congress in securing critical funding for the Army Corps to restore flood control infrastructure along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and to rebuild communities impacted by the unprecedented flooding of 2011.
Advancing Pro-life Policies
Stopping Anti-Religious Liberty Obamacare Mandates
Protecting the Freedom of Religion Abroad
Funding Women’s Health, Not Planned Parenthood
Defending your Right to Bear Arms
Securing our Borders
Enforcing our Immigration Laws