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.
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.