Roy Blunt

Roy D. Blunt (born January 10, 1950) is the junior United States Senator from Missouri. He is a member of the Republican Party. His Senate seat was previously held by Republican Kit Bond, until his retirement.

Blunt served as the United States Representative from Missouri's 7th congressional district from 1997 to 2011. The district contains most of Southwest Missouri, the most conservative part of the state, anchored in the city of Springfield, as well as cities such as Joplin, Carthage, and Neosho. The popular tourist destination of Branson also lies in the district. In January 2011, Blunt was succeeded in the House by Billy Long.

Blunt was the House Minority Whip during the 110th Congress but after the 2008 general elections announced that he would step down from the position. After House Majority Leader Tom DeLay stepped down upon criminal indictment in Texas, Blunt served as interim House Majority Leader from September 29, 2005, to February 2, 2006, when John Boehner of Ohio was elected as DeLay's permanent replacement. In 2011, Blunt was elected Vice-Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

Blunt is the father of Matt Blunt, the governor of Missouri from 2005 to 2009. At 54, he was the youngest father of a governor of any state. Also he was one of the few politicians who remained active in political scene while his son was a governor. He and his son are the only Republicans to have served as Missouri Secretary of State since 1945.

Early life and education
Blunt was born in Niangua, Missouri, the son of Neva Dora (née Letterman) and Leroy O. Blunt. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in history from Southwest Baptist University in 1970. In college he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity. Two years later, he earned a master's degree in history from Missouri State University (then Southwest Missouri State University).

Greene County Clerk
Blunt entered politics in 1972, when he was elected county clerk and chief election official of Greene County (where Springfield is located). He served as Greene County Clerk until 1984.

1980 lieutenant gubernatorial election
Incumbent Republican Lieutenant Governor Bill Phelps decided to run for Governor. Blunt, the Greene County Clerk, decided to run for the open seat and won the Republican primary, but lost the general election to State Representative Ken Rothman 56%-44%.

Secretary of State
In 1984, incumbent Democrat Missouri Secretary of State James C. Kirkpatrick decided to retire. Blunt decided to run and won the Republican primary with 79% of the vote. In the general election, he defeated Democratic State Representative Gary Sharpe 54%-46%. He became the first Republican to hold the post in 50 years.

In 1988, he won re-election against Democrat James Askew 61%-38%.

1992 gubernatorial election
Incumbent Republican Governor John Ashcroft was term-limited. Blunt decided to run statewide a fourth time. Missouri Attorney General William Webster defeated him and Missouri Treasurer Wendell Bailey 44%-40%-15%. Webster would lose the general election to Mel Carnahan.

University President
From 1993 to 1996, Blunt was President of Southwest Baptist University, his alma mater.

Elections
Blunt was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996, when incumbent U.S. Representative Mel Hancock honored his pledge to serve only four terms. Blunt's district, the most conservative district in Missouri, is located in the Ozark Mountains in the southwestern part of the state and includes cities such as Springfield and Joplin. Blunt was reelected six times without significant opposition. Blunt's political action committee is the Rely on Your Beliefs Fund.

Tenure
After only one term, Blunt was appointed as chief deputy whip, the highest appointed position in the House Republican Caucus. In that capacity, he served as the Republicans' chief vote-counter. When Dick Armey retired and fellow Texan Tom DeLay was elected to succeed him, Blunt was elected to succeed DeLay as House Majority Whip. Rep. Blunt was a member of the "CREW's Most Corrupt", a publication distributed by watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in 2005 and 2006. CREW accused Blunt of benefiting firms who had hired his then-girlfriend (later wife) Abigail Perlman and son Andrew Blunt, as well as close connections to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who had been convicted upon multiple counts of fraud. Blunt denies both accusations.

On January 8, 2006, one day after DeLay announced that he would not seek to regain his position, Blunt announced he would run to permanently replace DeLay. On January 14, 2006, he issued a release claiming that the majority of the Republican caucus had endorsed him as DeLay's successor. However, when the election was held by secret ballot on February 2, 2006, U.S. Representative John Boehner of Ohio won on the second ballot, with 122 votes to 109 for Blunt. In November 2006, Blunt was elected by House Republicans to their second-highest position during the 110th Congress, House Minority Whip. Blunt handily defeated U.S. Representative John Shadegg of Arizona for the position. He announced that he would step down from the position in late 2008, following two successive election cycles where House Republicans had lost seats and to avoid a difficult battle with his deputy, Eric Cantor, who was urged by some to challenge Blunt for the position of Republican Whip.

Committee assignments
Upon entering the U.S. House, Blunt served on the House International Relations Committee, the House Committee on Agriculture, and the House Transportation Committee. In 1999, he gave up seats on the latter two committees and joined the powerful House Committee on Energy and Commerce. In addition he became a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He has also served on the Republican Conference Steering Committee since his election to the U.S. House of Representatives, a committee that determines to which committees Republican members of the House are assigned and elevates members to positions of ranking member or chair.

2010 election
On February 19, 2009, Blunt announced he would seek the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate election for the seat being vacated by incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Kit Bond. He successfully ran against Democratic nominee Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, Constitution Party nominee Jerry Beck, Libertarian nominee Jonathan Dine, and write-in candidates Mark S. Memoly, Frazier Miller, Jeff Wirick and Richie L. Wolfe.

Tenure
So far in the U.S. Senate, he has a reputation of being a Culture Warrior. The Wall Street Journal reported in February 2011, that "Blunt introduced an amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that would allow an employer to deny health services if they conflict with their 'religious beliefs or moral convictions'." (see Blunt Amendment) Blunt said of the controversy “was it an overreach when Mrs. Clinton put it in the Clinton health care plan in 1994? I don’t think it’s an overreach at all. It doesn’t mention any specific procedure. It doesn’t even suggest the mandate should be eliminated.”

Committee assignments

 * Committee on Appropriations
 * Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies (Ranking Member)
 * Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
 * Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
 * Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
 * Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
 * Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
 * Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
 * Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet
 * Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation, and Export Promotion (Ranking Member)
 * Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security
 * Committee on Rules and Administration
 * Select Committee on Intelligence

Political positions
Blunt has a conservative voting record. He is generally rated highly by conservative advocacy groups and receives correspondingly low ratings from liberal groups.

Social issues
Although Missouri Right to Life endorsed Webster over Blunt in the 1992 Republican gubernatorial primary, Blunt has voted pro-life in the House and has a conservative record on most other social issues. He has voted to ban partial-birth abortions and to restrict or criminalize transporting minors across state lines for the purpose of getting an abortion. He opposes federal funding for elective abortions in accordance with the Hyde Amendment. He also voted in favor of the unsuccessful Federal Marriage Amendment which sought to place a national ban on same-sex marriage, and has voted against gay adoption. He received 94 percent lifetime and 96 percent 2004 ratings from the conservative American Conservative Union, a 14 percent rating from the American Civil Liberties Union, and a 92 percent rating from the conservative Christian Coalition.

Education
Blunt has voted in favor of school prayer and supported the No Child Left Behind Act. He has voted in favor of school vouchers within the District of Columbia but has voted against broader legislation allowing states to use federal money to issue vouchers for private or religious schools. He has received a 17 percent rating from the National Education Association.

Guns
Blunt has voted to prohibit lawsuits against gun manufacturers and dealers if the guns they manufacture or sell are later used in a crime. He has also voted to reduce the waiting period for purchasing a gun from 72 hours to 24 hours. He has received an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association.

Environment
Blunt opposes the federal cap and trade legislation and supports drilling for oil on the U.S. coastline. On 10 March 2010, Blunt was named by environmentalist group League of Conservation Voters as one of the "Dirty Dozen" lawmakers who had "consistently sided with Big Oil and other dirty polluters over a cleaner, more sustainable future". Blunt does not believe in man-made global warming, stating: "There isn't any real science to say we are altering the climate or path of the Earth."

Business
Blunt received a 97 percent tiles rating from the United States Chamber of Commerce indicating a pro-business voting record. He supported banking industry-backed efforts to overhaul U.S. bankruptcy laws, requiring consumers who seek bankruptcy protection to repay more of their debts.

Internet gambling
Blunt is a staunch advocate of a federal prohibitions of online poker. In 2006, he cosponsored H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act and H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.

Health care
Blunt, who chairs the House Republican Health Care Solutions Group, has opposed plans for health care reform supported by Democrats, including proposals that include a "public option" of medical insurance offered by the government. In July 2009 he suggested that the government should not have created Medicare and Medicaid, saying:

Later that month, according to the Missouri Democratic Party, Blunt said, "We've had Medicare since 1965, and Medicare has never done anything to make people more healthy."

In August 2009, Blunt stated in two separate newspaper interviews that, because he was 59 years old, "In either Canada or Great Britain, if I broke my hip, I couldn't get it replaced." Blunt stated that he had heard the statement in Congressional testimony by "some people who are supposed to be experts on Canadian health care." The PolitiFact service of the St. Petersburg Times reported that it could not find any such testimony.

Blunt opposes efforts to end the practice of charging higher rates to unhealthier groups of people. Instead, he suggests expanding the risk pool to make healthcare affordable for those people.

Blunt favors allowing dependent children to stay on their parents' health insurance plans until after the age of 27.

Personal life
Blunt has been married twice. He married Roseann Ray in May 1967 and had three children with her: Matt (the former Governor of Missouri), Amy Blunt Mosby and Andrew Blunt. Amy and Andrew are lawyers and lobbyists. Blunt and Ray divorced after 35 years of marriage. Afterward, he married Abigail Perlman, a lobbyist for Kraft Foods, on October 18, 2003. In April 2006, he and his wife adopted an 18-month old boy from Russia, whom they renamed Alexander Charles "Charlie" Blunt. Blunt also has six grandchildren: Davis Mosby, Eva Mosby, Ben Blunt, William Branch Blunt, Brooks Anderson Blunt, and Allyson Blunt. He is a Southern Baptist and attends First Baptist Church in Branson, Missouri.

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