Missouri’s two U.S. senators have been named to top positions in Republican leadership and legislative committees.
Republican Sen. Roy Blunt announced he was re-elected vice chairman of the Senate’s GOP caucus.
He said Republicans want to work with GOP President-elect Donald Trump on issues such as Democratic President Barack Obama’s federal healthcare law, regulations and vacancies on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill also was picked to be the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The committee oversees the federal government and Department of Homeland Security.
McCaskill previously served as the ranking Democrat on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which delved into how classified advertising website Backpage.com screens ads for possible sex trafficking.
A new member of the GOP conference leadership team is Jason Smith of Missouri, who was elected conference secretary by voice vote. Smith will succeed Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, who hopes to chair the Education and the Workforce Committee next year.
Smith said in a statement that he wants to use his new position to “elevate” his colleagues and leverage their expertise.
“I want to help work with the rest of the Republican Conference and the Trump White House to make sure the many solutions my colleagues have for making America great again are listened to and enacted,” he said. “The more input we have from our diverse conference, the more quickly we can get the government off the back and out of lives of millions of American families, farmers and small business owners.”