[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 199 (Wednesday, December 21, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9764-S9765]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     
     
                               TRIBUTE TO ROY BLUNT
     
       Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I rise to pay tribute to our colleague 
     and, more importantly, my dear friend, Senator Roy Blunt. By Senate 
     standards, Senator Blunt has had a brief career--two terms--but he has 
     been extraordinarily effective. I know I speak on behalf of all of our 
     colleagues when I say we will miss Senator Blunt's calming influence 
     and steady hand at the helm of good old-fashioned bipartisan 
     legislating.
       Senator Blunt is native Missourian. He grew up on a dairy farm, so he 
     knows about hard work. He received both his undergraduate and graduate 
     degrees in the State. He entered public service at the age of 22 when 
     he became the Greene County Clerk and Election Official, a post he held 
     for 12 years.
       In 1984, Senator Blunt was elected to serve as Missouri's secretary 
     of state, the first Republican to hold that position in 50 years. In 
     1996, he won election to the U.S. House of Representatives and was 
     reelected six times. I got to know him while we both served in the 
     House.
       Before Senator Blunt was elected to serve in Congress, he was a high 
     school history teacher. He also taught at his alma mater, Southwest 
     Baptist University, and served as its president from 1993 to 1996.
       Senator Blunt was well-schooled in civics and governance when he 
     arrived in Congress, so it is no surprise that he quickly rose through 
     the ranks to hold Republican leadership posts both in the House and in 
     the Senate. He became the majority whip in the House earlier in his 
     career than any predecessor over the previous 80 years. He entered 
     Senate Republican leadership as a freshman.
       I have had the privilege and the pleasure of working with Senator 
     Blunt on many issues, chief of which is the New Markets Tax Credit 
     program, NMTC. We have worked together since 2015 to extend and 
     increase the allocation for the New Markets Tax Credit program, which 
     provides a 39 percent Federal tax credit for businesses or economic 
     development projects in areas with poverty rates of at least 20 
     percent, or median incomes at or below 80 percent of the area median, 
     driving investment and strengthening communities in areas that need it 
     most. In Missouri, I understand that more than 500 projects have 
     benefited from the tax credit, covering everything from afterschool 
     programs and affordable housing to research hubs and local small 
     businesses.
       Senator Blunt and I serve as cochairs of the Atlantic Council's U.S.-
     Colombia Task Force, where we have worked together to strengthen the 
     economic, diplomatic, and security ties between our two nations.
       Earlier this month, Senator Blunt, who serves as the ranking member 
     on the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, was instrumental in 
     helping pass S. 5229, a bill I introduced directing the Joint Committee 
     on the Library to remove the bust of Roger Taney from the Old Supreme 
     Court Chamber and to obtain a bust of Thurgood Marshall. Taney was 
     Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who wrote the majority opinion in 
     the infamous Dred Scott case in 1857. Marshall was the first Black 
     Supreme Court Justice.
       Senator Blunt is a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, and 
     he has skillfully looked after his State's interests. But he has had a 
     much broader vision, too, particularly when it comes to the National 
     Institutes of Health--NIH--located not in Missouri, but in my home 
     State of Maryland. As the former chair and now the ranking member on 
     the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human 
     Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor/HHS), Senator Blunt 
     secured seven consecutive funding increases for NIH totaling $15.4 
     billion.
       Thanks in large part to Senator Blunt's leadership, Alzheimer's 
     disease research funding has more than quintupled, increasing from $631 
     million to nearly $3.5 billion. In September, NIH dedicated the Roy 
     Blunt Center for Alzheimer's and Related Dementias Research in 
     Bethesda, MD.
       Thanks in large part to Senator Blunt's leadership, the National 
     Cancer Institute has received an increase of nearly $2 billion, or 40 
     percent, over the past 7 years.
       The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which President Biden signed 
     into law in June, included more than $8.5 billion to expand the 
     successful Excellence in Mental Health Program, which created Certified 
     Community Behavioral Health Clinics--CCBHCs--to every State that 
     chooses to participate. Nine states, including Missouri and Michigan, 
     are currently participating in the CCBHC program; 10 additional States 
     may opt into the program every 2 years.
       Senator Blunt worked with Senator Stabenow to pass the Excellence in 
     Mental Health Act in 2014. The law, which marked the most significant 
     expansion of community mental health and addiction services in decades, 
     created CCBHCs that provide a wide range of services, including 24/7/
     365 crisis services, immediate screenings, risk assessments, and 
     diagnoses. Missouri was one of the first eight States selected to 
     participate in the Excellence pilot program, and has done so since 
     2017.
       Start-up grants have expanded the number of clinics to more than 300 
     communities across 40 States, plus Washington, DC, and that number 
     continues to grow. Annual funding for CCBHC expansion grants started at 
     $100 million in fiscal year 2018 and is now $315 million. The total 
     funding for fiscal years 2018 through 2022 exceeds $1 billion. In 2020, 
     Congress also provided an additional $850 million through emergency 
     COVID funding. These clinics serve about 1.5 million people across the 
     country.
       These are just a few of Senator Blunt's many accomplishments on 
     behalf of his beloved Missourians, all Americans, and people around the 
     world. Senator Blunt is always interested in trying to find consensus, 
     and he usually succeeds. Wherever there are bipartisan ``gangs,'' as we 
     call them, working on thorny issues from infrastructure to marriage 
     equality to Electoral Count Act reform, you will find Senator Blunt. 
     His service provides a model all Senators should strive to emulate.
       I will miss collaborating with Senator Blunt but am grateful that our 
     congressional careers have overlapped for the past 26 years. We all owe 
     a debt of gratitude to his lovely wife Abigail--
     
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     Abby--and his 10 children and grandchildren for ``sharing'' him with 
     Congress and the Nation for a public service career spanning half a 
     century. Senator Blunt has made his mark, and we are all better for it.
     
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