This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 27, 2011 - WASHINGTON -- Following in the footsteps of his predecessor, U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said Thursday that he had gotten a coveted seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, an unusual assignment for a freshman senator.
Joining Blunt on the Appropriations panel will be Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., a strong opponent of earmarks. Kirk also will serve on the Senate committees on Banking, Health and Education, and Aging. "These Senate Committee assignments line up well with an economic agenda for Illinois," Kirk said in a statement. Illinois' senior senator, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., also has a seat on Appropriations.
Blunt's seat on the panel that sets levels for federal spending will put him in the midst of expected battles this year on budget issues and -- in the past -- would have given him a good position to gain approval for specific projects important to Missouri. But Senate Republicans have vowed not to insert such earmarks in spending bills during this Congress, and President Barack Obama declared in his State of the Union speech this week that he would veto any spending bill with such earmarks.
Blunt's Senate predecessor, former Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., had used his seat on the committee to add funding for specific Missouri projects to appropriations legislation and was an unapologetic defender of earmarks. Blunt told journalists on Wednesday that he would go along with the Republican position, but questioned whether banning earmarks would have much of an impact on the budget deficit. He also said he was concerned that Congress, by abandoning earmarks, was giving too much power to the president.
Like Bond, Blunt also was assigned a seat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees and funds the nation's intelligence activities. When he was a U.S. House member, Blunt had served on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Blunt said Thursday that he looked forward to continuing "the work of addressing the threats to our nation and to building on my experience in the House" on intelligence issues.
Blunt's two other committee assignments, confirmed Thursday by the Senate's Republican Conference, were the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee -- which deals with transportation, science, highway safety, interstate commerce, communications and the regulation of consumer products and services -- and the Rules and Administration Committee, an insider's panel that oversees Senate buildings, Senate rules, attendance and is involved in assigning offices to senators. It also deals with contested elections and federal election issues.
"I look forward to serving on these four committees and I'm ready to get started on the critical work at hand," Blunt said in a statement. "Due to the fact that the Democrat Senate majority has failed to put up a budget for the last two years, the serious business of cutting the government's out-of-control spending will take place in the Appropriations Committee."
Blunt, who had served on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, also said he would "continue to fight for Missouri's transportation infrastructure on the Senate Commerce Committee, along with the science and technology issues the committee deals with."
For his part, Kirk pledged to use his seat on Appropriations to "fight to reduce the size and spending of the federal government." His priority on the Banking panel is to "provide Illinois a stronger voice in expanding jobs in the financial centers of our state. On the Health and Education Committee, Kirk said he wants to "help repeal and replace the heath-care law while making our students ready to win against competitors from Asia and Europe." And he promised to work on the Aging panel "to advocate on behalf of our 1.6 million Illinois seniors."
Also on Thursday, Durbin announced that he will get a seat on the Foreign Relations Committee, in addition to his seats on the Appropriations, Judiciary and Rules committees. In a statement, Durbin said he was pleased to get the assignment because "America's engagement overseas is not only critical for our national security, but it is vital to Illinois' economy and status as a crossroads for global business and culture. I look forward to the opportunity to advocate for greater U.S. involvement in the world -- both through our development goals and using our position as a global leader to help those facing poverty, political oppression, and instability around the world."
Durbin, the Senate's second-ranking Democrat, has worked on foreign policy issues for years, with an emphasis on human rights, global health and development. In the last few years he has traveled to Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Haiti. He is the leading cosponsor of the Paul Simon Water for the World Act, which seeks to provide 100 million of the world's poorest people with sustainable access to clean water.
For her part, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., remains on the four committees she served on last year: Homeland Security and Government Affairs, Armed Services, Commerce and Aging.