Sen. Blunt criticizes regulation at Marble Hill appearance

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Too little money and too much government add up to agencies that can do only a part of what they promise and basically nothing gets done, said U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, who spoke to a packed room Wednesday morning at Jer's Restaurant.

Blunt, a Republican, criticized the Environmental Protection Agency, calling it "just terrible," regulating the country out of employment. Blunt cited cap-and-trade regulations, which he said the EPA pushed through in the guise of a bill to regulate clean air by eliminating coal as a power source, as legislation that will increase the cost of utilities by 82 percent in the next 10 years, "and double after that. We have pretty cheap electricity because of coal."

Blunt said over-regulation of coal energy is causing factories to relocate to China, India and Mexico, "where they don't care where the smokestacks are."

"American jobs need American energy," Blunt said. "We use the same amount in a bad economy as in a good economy. Energy jobs are number one in private-sector jobs."

Blunt said the size of the federal government is becoming so big the economy can't support it. He recalled when he was growing up in southwest Missouri how people would declare that all the federal government needs to do is provide for defense and run the post office.

"We have too many places where three or four levels of government are trying to do the same thing," Blunt said. "We get much better decisions closer to home."

Spending at a local or state level makes more sense, instead of relying on the federal level.

"FEMA is another example," Blunt said. "FEMA gets something started it doesn't have the capacity to finish."

Disaster relief

The senator made that comment in response to recent criticism for FEMA's freezing money for the Joplin, Mo., tornado rebuilding to help pay for Hurricane Irene response on the East Coast.

"You do have to get to emergencies first, but you also have to fulfill the commitment you made to people when you start a project," he said.

Blunt said FEMA does not have money now to fund everything it promised but added that the fiscal year will run out in another month and that there will be money in the new budget to pick up the gap. He also advocated better planning so commitments can be kept and shifting some responsibility, and funding, to state emergency agencies. Blunt said he has commissioned a study to determine how best to define a national disaster so the state and federal agencies can make best use of available resources.

Keeping commitments is something Blunt believes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should also improve on. Blunt has toured the Birds Point landing where the Mississippi River levee was breached in May and said he will return there this week. He supports efforts to require the corps to restore the levee to its original size.

"The corps' plan allowed them to tear the levee down; now it requires them to put it back," he said.

If the levee is left at 51 feet, as the corps said it would build the levee to, then more than 130,000 acres of farmland the levee is protecting will be in jeopardy.

"It will flood every other year," Blunt said. "In the last 20 years the river has flooded 12 times and been high enough it would have gone over the base of the levee the corps is currently building. They need to add those extra 11 feet."

Blunt also answered questions about national defense, economic development, and other questions on the minds of his constituents.

Pertinent address:

107 Presnell St., Marble Hill, MO