Blunt hopeful about getting spending bill

Washington – Now a member of the majority party, U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt talked about the chance to get a spending bill approved now that Republicans control both chambers of Congress.

“I hope we get a spending bill that lasts through Sept. 30th; we may not be able to get that done,” Blunt told The Daily Star-Journal.

Under Majority Leader Harry Reid, spending bills started out too late in the year and went nowhere, he said, something that should not happen going forward if anyone expects a bill to pass that brings stability to government spending.

“If we can get a bill between now and Sept. 11, which is the end of the current continuing resolution … that’s a good thing,” Blunt said. “I’m going to work to see that we get that done.”

The House will work with the Senate, he said.

“What the new Congress can do best is do people’s business in an open and transparent way,” Blunt said.

Also during the press call, Blunt said bills bottlenecked during Reid’s tenure as majority leader, including the Keystone Pipeline, will have a chance of passage under Republican leadership. Blunt has long backed the pipeline.

“That’s one of the keys to drive the economy toward good-paying jobs with good take-home pay for families,” he said, and energy will be cheaper. “The country’s not only going to be more competitive, the country’s going to be a lot more interested in making things again.”

Blunt said he expects even Democrats to benefit from a change in Senate leadership.

“We’re going to see a Senate that works differently in a dramatic way for both Democrats and Republicans,” he said, adding some Democrats have not had a chance under their own party’s leadership to have their amendments presented to the Senate and voted upon. “We have an opportunity to prove that there’s a better way.”

Sen. Claire McCaskill, a moderate Democrat, voted against making Reid her party’s minority leader.

“Yesterday I met with Harry Reid and told him I would not be supporting him for Minority Leader,” the Missouri Democrat said in a statement to the press. “I heard the voters of Missouri loud and clear. They want change in Washington. Common sense tells me that begins with changes in leadership.”

Blunt said he could agree with McCaskill on that point.

“Sen. Harry Reid’s leadership dramatically reduced the Senate in its ability to get people’s work done in an open and transparent way,” Blunt said. “The more of my colleagues who understand that, the more likely we can move forward in a Senate that actually passes a budget, a Senate that actually takes up appropriations bills, a Senate that looks at the bills coming from the House and lets senators vote up or down on as many of them as we can possibly get to.”

Moderate Democrats will have a role in the Senate, he said.

“A lot of things in the Senate still are going to take 60 votes,” Blunt said, with Republicans expecting to hold 54 seats in January. “Getting those other six Democrats will be part of the daily work of the majority and I think Red State Democrats and Purple State Democrats should look at the last election.”

Most Democrats made Reid minority leader just as they made Nancy Pelosi minority leader after Democrats lost the House.

The Republican-led Senate means opportunity for Blunt to expand his service.

“There’s a chance that I’ll chair a committee and chair one or two subcommittees,” he said. “They would be good committees for our state.”

Blunt mentioned the Surface Transportation and Commerce Committee and the FDA Rural Development Appropriating Committee.

“Both those committees I’ve been top Republican on for awhile,” he said. “But we have to let the process work.”

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