Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt is facing a very tough challenge from Democrat Jason Kander. The two had their first debate, in which Kander emerged as a serious, thoughtful challenger. That, in fact, might be on the only debate, because while Kander has agreed to two more, Blunt is so far refusing. But he might have to rethink that, because when word gets out around Missouri about how not seriously he's been taking his job, he's going to have to be out there justifying his existence. A Democratic research firm sends their exhaustive research into Blunt's congressional career, and finds out that he doesn't seem all that interested in putting the effort into committee work that his constituents might expect.
Blunt served in the House from 1997-2011. The analysis of transcripts and voting records while he was in the House (beginning in 2000 when digital records became available) from the committees Blunt served on—Energy and Commerce and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, as well as their subcommittees—show that he seemed to have missed 67 percent of committee hearings. His name didn't show up in the transcripts as having spoken or in committee voting records, of 229 of 343 hearings where such information was available. That's a pretty lackadaisical approach to the job, showing up a third of the time. Some of what he missed are a June 2001 hearing on first responder 911 communications, and the annual 2009 threat assessment hearing.
He continued this casual approach to the job when he moved up to the Senate in 2012. There he serves on Appropriations; Armed Services; Commerce, Science, and Technology; Joint Library; Joint Printing; and Rules and Administration committees. He did a little better here, absent from the records of just 52 percent of committee hearings. That would still be a failing grade, but he could get a few bonus points for showing up almost half the time.
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What was he doing while he wasn't at these hearings? Hard to say, but there's existing records that tell us some of that. For instance, the morning of September 9, 2009, he was missing a hearing on broadband expansion in the stimulus package. Because he was holding a breakfast fundraiser. Interestingly enough, that's what happened on July 14, 2010 when he missed a key agriculture hearing. He had a House party fundraiser to attend that day.
When he moves over to the Senate, some of what he's missing seems even more important, like two hearings on "Violent Extremism and the Role of Foreign Assistance," one on March 5, 2014, and a second on April 12, 2016. The analysis found at least 14 days when Blunt didn't show up for a hearing—on everything from rail security, defense appropriations, to consumer protection—but did manage to make it to a fundraiser. Here's a particularly special one, though. On October 11, 2013, the Commerce, Science, and Transportation had a hearing entitled "The Impacts of the Government Shutdown on Our Economic Security" beginning at 1:08 PM. Where was Blunt? On his way to a weekend fundraiser at a golf resort in South Carolina where he raised money for his PAC. The price of admission, $5,000 for a PAC.
It's bad enough that the Republican Senate as a whole has been the most unproductive one in modern history, but even in that under-achieving atmosphere Blunt is among the stand outs for his lack of commitment to the job. Missouri, the nation, deserves better than that.