Trump names Kinder to Delta Regional Authority leadership post

Peter Kinder, Missouri’s former lieutenant governor, has been appointed by President Donald Trump to serve as alternate federal co-chairman of the Delta Regional Authority.

The White House announced the appointment Thursday, but Kinder said the appointment had been in the works since March.

With the chairman position vacant, Kinder said for now he will be the “acting chair” of the federal agency.

Unlike the chairman post, which requires U.S. Senate confirmation, the alternate co-chairman position requires no legislative approval, Kinder said.

The agency works to boost economic development in Missouri and seven other states bordering the Mississippi River.

Kinder, a Cape Girardeau Republican, served three four-year terms as Missouri’s lieutenant governor, ending in January. He previously served three terms in the Missouri Senate and in 2001 became the first Republican to lead the state Senate in 53 years.

Kinder called the appointment “a great honor.”

The Delta Regional Authority (DRA) makes “important contributions to the growth and economic development of the eight states and 10 million residents served by the agency,” Kinder said in a news release issued Friday by the DRA.

The authority is a federal-state partnership, created by Congress in 2000, to improve economic development in 252 counties across the eight states, including the Southeast Missouri region.

The DRA is headquartered in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Kinder said he had an opportunity to be named to other positions in the administration of President Trump, but they would have required him to relocate to Washington, D.C.

He said he wants to continue to live in Cape Girardeau, something he will be able to do with his new position.

“I like being at home,” Kinder added.

Kinder said he leases a small office in Cape Girardeau, but will be traveling throughout the delta region in his administrative role.

He credited U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem, Missouri, for helping

him secure the federal position.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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