{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=ECAA211F-D15E-462D-91EC-8C05D24FA94C", "McConnell Honors Retiring Senator Roy Blunt", "2022-12-06", "2022", "2022-12", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO):\n\n\u201cMy friend and our distinguished colleague Roy Blunt is one of us whose political careers began at the most local level. As a 20-some-year-old county clerk, Roy\u2019s career in government required real, hands-on public service from the very beginning.\n\n\u201cFortunately, hard work and rolled-up sleeves weren\u2019t foreign concepts for Roy. After all, before our friend became the first in his family to finish college, he grew up on a dairy farm. And for decades now, that doggedness and persistence have served Roy\u2019s neighbors exceptionally well.\n\n\u201cGreene County\u2019s young Clerk, a former high school history teacher, fell short in his first campaign for higher statewide office. But a few years later, he handily became the first Republican Secretary of State Missouri had seen in half a century.\n\n\u201cAfter eight years there and then four as a university president, Roy was already a seasoned veteran, firing on all cylinders, when he arrived in the House of Representatives in 1997. Little wonder that, after just three terms, Roy became the newest Representative to be voted House Majority Whip in 80 years.\n\n\u201cSo clearly, Roy had a big-time reputation for getting things done before he moved across the Rotunda here to the Senate. When he won his election in 2010, all his colleagues knew our team was getting an all-star. And sure enough, if six years from freshman status to House leadership set a modern land-speed record on that side of the Capitol, then over here, Roy broke the sound barrier! He joined our Conference\u2019s leadership team one year after he became a Senator.\n\n\u201cThe record of accomplishments Roy\u2019s racked up reflects the fusion of focus, detail-mindedness, and a rare knack for broader strategy and management.\n\n\u201cTime after time, Senator Blunt has thrown himself into the weeds of policy, achieved total fluency in the details, and then climbed back up to 30,000 feet to make strategic decisions that would actually move the ball forward.\n\n\u201cCase in point: I believe Roy\u2019s the only Rules Committee chair in history to have actually served as his state\u2019s top elections official. He knows the ins and outs of voting issues as well as anyone. He knows that the federal role in our elections is both important and very limited. He understands the big picture, the fine details, and everything in between.\n\n\u201cThe leaders of Rules also have huge organizational and ceremonial duties as the Capitol organizes the Presidential Inauguration every four years. I have it on good authority that in both 2017 and 2021, when Roy headed up the ceremonies, our resident history buff handwrote every word of his speeches himself, longhand. Names, dates, historical references, quotations \u2014 all straight from his pen, and it all passed his team\u2019s careful fact-checking without a drop of red ink.\n\n\u201cNow, those ceremonial duties bear mentioning in part because taking center stage is such a departure from the way Roy normally tackles his business.\n\n\u201cWorking methodically and diligently, building consensus behind the scenes, Missouri\u2019s Senior Senator has steered hundreds of millions of dollars toward improving transportation infrastructure at the crossroads of the American heartland. He\u2019s reached across the aisle repeatedly to improve workforce development for American veterans. He\u2019s worked tirelessly to protect the integrity of our electoral systems.\n\n\u201cAnd perhaps most important of all, Roy\u2019s had a direct, generational impact on the future of cutting-edge American medicine. He spent years building the transformational new consensus that became the Excellence in Mental Health Act. His work to equip researchers to tackle rare diseases helped pour the foundation for the 21st Century Cures Act. At the National Institutes of Health, Roy Blunt\u2019s name is literally on the door of the signature initiative he championed to help the millions of Americans affected by dementia.\n\n\u201cTime and again, our capable and trusted colleague has wound up in the middle of high-stakes, high-profile work. Yet Roy remains the same humble and approachable Show Me Stater who first got into this business to help his neighbors.\n\n\u201cThese are qualities Roy shares with fellow distinguished Missourians who preceded him. Ever the historian, our colleague has regaled guests with the history of his Senate office suite \u2014 which once belonged to Harry Truman, both as a Senator and even including Truman\u2019s brief spell as Vice President. Apparently, Truman came back personally to collect his things and finish moving out after he\u2019d already become the Commander-in-Chief.\n\n\u201cBut history isn\u2019t the only subject where this former teacher still administers pop quizzes.\n\n\u201cRoy\u2019s staff tell fondly how their boss is liable to walk into their offices at any time and simply inquire: \u2018So \u2014 what do you know?\u2019 That one signature query captures Roy Blunt so well. The high standards. The curiosity. The restless energy to find the next big project that will make a difference. These qualities have made Roy one of the best the Senate\u2019s ever had at sniffing out common ground and delivering outcomes.\n\n\u201cBut legislation isn\u2019t the only area where our friend\u2019s nose-to-the-grindstone spirit pays dividends. For example \u2014 I\u2019m not sure what Roy has planned for his next chapter, but given his penchant for spending Saturdays walking the aisles at Home Depot and knocking out home improvement projects, I give him about two weeks before there won\u2019t be one leaky faucet or rusted hinge within a three-mile radius of Roy\u2019s and Abby\u2019s place.\n\n\u201cWe know our friend much too well to predict that he\u2019ll follow 14 general election victories by kicking back and taking it easy. But I suspect Roy sure won\u2019t mind the extra time with Abby, and seeing more of Matt, Amy, Andrew, Charlie, and his grandkids, too.\n\n\u201cOn behalf of all his friends here in the Senate, and on behalf of the country, I thank my friend the senior Senator from Missouri for his years of outstanding service.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:41:06Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=ECAA211F-D15E-462D-91EC-8C05D24FA94C"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.698262058198452, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}