Roy Blunt says goodbye to the Senate, urging bipartisan governance and thanking voters

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt said farewell to Congress on Tuesday, delivering his final address on the Senate floor as he prepares to leave elected office in January after more than 25 years.

Missouri's senior senator, who came to the higher chamber in 2011 after more than a decade in the House, thanked voters and his colleagues and called Missouri "where the country comes together." He lamented a breakdown in function and consistent governance in Congress through recent years, saying that "we clearly found new levels of inefficiency in the past decade — one big bill at the end of the year to fund the government plus whatever the four leaders of the House and Senate can agree to add to it."

Blunt urged his colleagues to seek common ground across the aisle as partisanship becomes increasingly hostile, arguing that "finding someone on the other side to work with produces the most lasting results."

"You don't have to agree on everything to work together," he said. "You just have to agree on one thing. And if you find that one thing you agree on, and frankly, particularly if you're successful, both members working together and their staffs think, gee, we could do that again."

Though he has been a reliable vote for Republican priorities and frequently critical of Democrats' big-picture plans, Blunt in his final years in office has also lent his support to some priorities of Senate Democrats and the White House. He was one of 19 Republicans to support a spending package on infrastructure last year, part of a group that helped seal bipartisan support; he has also voted for a mental health package aimed at curbing mass shootings and to codify same-sex marriage rights into federal law.

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Blunt, who served Greene County Clerk and Missouri Secretary of State before going to Washington, praised the work of local officials, touting his visits to all of the Show-Me State's counties to visit those overseeing local and county operations.

"In my view, there's nowhere in America you're more likely to get a solution to a governmental problem than a county courthouse," he said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has led the Republican caucus in the Senate since 2007, delivered a speech on the Senate floor earlier Tuesday honoring Blunt. He noted his political savvy and rise through the ranks of the party in both chambers over two decades.

"When he won his election in 2010, all his colleagues knew our team was getting an all-star," McConnell said. "And sure enough, if six years from freshman status to House leadership set a modern land-speed record on that side of the Capitol, then over here, Roy broke the sound barrier."

He also praised Blunt's work in the fields of legislation and policy-making — pointing to his allocation of hundreds of millions of dollars toward Missouri through federal budget deals and advocacy for Alzheimer's and other medical research.

"Time after time, Sen. Blunt has thrown himself into the weeds of policy, achieved total fluency in the details, and then climbed back up to 30,000 feet to make strategic decisions that would actually move the ball forward."

Blunt will be succeeded by Republican U.S. Sen.-elect Eric Schmitt in January. U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley will become Missouri's senior senator.

Galen Bacharier covers Missouri politics & government for the News-Leader. Contact him at gbacharier@news-leader.com, (573) 219-7440 or on Twitter @galenbacharier.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Roy Blunt says farewell to the Senate, urging bipartisan cooperation