Hitting the ground running in his new job, Roy Blunt was named to the U.S. Senate's Republican vote-counting team shortly after he was sworn into office Wednesday as Missouri's 45th senator. Escorted into the Senate chamber by his Republican predecessor, former Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, and Missouri's Democratic senior senator, Sen. Claire McCaskill, Blunt smiled broadly after Vice President Joe Biden administered the oath of office. "I look forward to continuing to work for Missourians as I've had an opportunity to do in the past," Blunt said in a statement afterward.
Within a few hours of the swearing-in, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., appointed Blunt and two other senators who are former U.S. House Members to an expanded Republican Senate vote-counting team.
The new Congress now has 47 Republican senators. "I think Roy will follow in Kit Bond's footsteps and be a great senator," said one of those supporters, Al Koller, who owns a plastics manufacturing company in Fenton. Another supporter, Frederick D. Palmer of Ladue, described Blunt as "a true leader who has exceptional skills as a legislator." Palmer, a senior vice president of Peabody Energy in St. Louis, attended the Blunt gathering with his wife, Gayle, He predicted that Blunt would rise quickly to become a leader in the Senate's Republican ranks.
In his statement on Wednesday, Blunt said he was taking office at an important time in U.S. history. "The moment we face is a moment where people really want to know: Where are the private sector jobs? Why is the government spending so much money? And are we going to live in a country where the government is bigger than the people, or where the people are bigger than the government?" Blunt added: "I am going to do everything I can to ensure that we live in a country where the people are bigger than the government, and I will continue my conversation with Missourians to be sure that we continue to fight for jobs and commonsense solutions to the problems we face."
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