releases: https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/latest-headlines/blunt-a-no-on-education-reform-mccaskill-gets-chamber-praise-for-construction-bill
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/latest-headlines/blunt-a-no-on-education-reform-mccaskill-gets-chamber-praise-for-construction-bill | Blunt a 'no' on education reform; McCaskill gets Chamber praise for construction bill | 2015-12-10 | 2015 | 2015-12 | Democrat | House | MO | Claire McCaskill | M001170 | www.mccaskill.senate.gov | legacy | Blunt a 'no' on education reform; McCaskill gets Chamber praise for construction bill Thursday, December 10, 2015 By: Chuck Raasch WASHINGTON Sen. Roy Blunt was one of 12 Senate Republicans to oppose an overhaul of federal elementary and secondary education programs that President Barack Obama signed into law Thursday. Obama hailed it as a necessary repeal of the No Child Left Behind act that gives states more flexibility in testing and boosts efforts in crucial areas, such as pre-school. But Blunt, R-Mo., said he opposed the bill because it still left "too much Washington-down impact on elementary and secondary education." The vote continued a trendin which Blunt has voted with a minority of Republicans against Obama-supported measures. The senator told the Post-Dispatch it was in keeping with his conservative philosophy, but his votes in 2015 have thrust him from the middle of the GOP pack to one of the most likely Republican senators to oppose Obama. The passage of the education bill was part of a year-end flurry of action involving St. Louis-area or Missouri members of Congress. Congress still must approve a budget which, among other things, will determine future construction of EA-18 aircraft at a Boeing facility in St. Louis, one of the most-watched federal spending items for the region. St. Louis-area members' staffs are confident that the budget will continue funding for the aircraft. Other items of note as Congress prepares for a holiday recess: On Thursday, Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville, chair of the House Armed Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, and Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, chair of the overall committee, released areport alleging that there were political considerationsbehind the 2014 release of five Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who disappeared from his Army post and was captured by the Taliban. Committee Republicans also say the exchange was illegal. The findings of this report should give each of us pause," Hartzler said. "Most disturbing to me are the calculated decisions and plans to mislead Congress and the American people as to the details and necessity of this transfer. After a review of the detainees at Guantanamo, ordered by President Obama, the Taliban 5 were included in a group of 48 detainees deemed too dangerous to transfer. Despite this, they were transferred. Committee Democrats described the report as "an unbalanced, partisan, and needless attempt to justify a pre-determined position." National and Missouri Chamber of Commerce officials held a press conference Thursday to praise Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., for co-sponsoring bipartisan legislation that was signed into law last week that they say will greatly reduce the time it takes to build major construction and repair projects, like that necessary for the I-70 corridor. McCaskill and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, co-sponsored a transportation bill provision that will now streamline environmental and other permitting processes for major projects. Chamber officials said it would have a major, positive effect on construction of big projects in the U.S. Bruce Josten, executive vice president for government affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said American infrastructure projects "simply cannot be built because of a broken permitting process. New streamlining law passed last week will coordinate and it will speed up the review and the approval or permitting for significant infrastructure and manufacturing products across the country." He said that McCaskill "led the legislation in the last Congress and she led it in this Congress." Josten and Daniel Mehan, president and CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that projects that take 18-24 months to get permitted in other industrialized nations now routinely take a dozen years in the U.S. They predicted that the McCaskill-Portman law will now allow a much faster construction permitting period, saving money and and attracting investors that have been putting their money into faster-built mega-projects overseas. Both the Chamber officials and McCaskill said they hoped the legislation would be a blueprint for more bipartisan economic growth work between moderate Democrats and Republicans. "Sometimes it is not about what team you play in but what work you are trying to do,"McCaskill said. Another streamlining effort, this one sponsored by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, passed the House Financial Services Committee this week and now is up for consideration by the full House. Luetkemeyer said his legislation is the first attempt in a long time to reform Housing and Urban Development and Department of Agriculture Housing programs. The bill would give state and local housing agencies and private owners more flexibility in complying with federal housing objectives, limit the time people with too much income to qualify for a program can stay in public-financed housing, and give special attention to homeless veterans and children who become too old for foster care. Print Email Tweet | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |