“Democrats are putting their own political agenda ahead of national security,” he said, listing the Super Hornets as “Missouri priorities Democrats blocked” when they used procedural maneuvers to hold up appropriations bills.

McCaskill said she has been assured that the additional Super Hornets will be funded either in compromise appropriations bills worked out in September, or in short-term continuing resolutions to fund the government at the current level beyond Sept. 30. She said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., her party’s second in command in the Senate, assured her that the additional Super Hornets would be in any deal worked out.

• Eleven Illinois members of the House, including Reps. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro; John Shimkus, R-Collinsville; and Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, this week wrote letters to negotiators hammering out differences in defense spending that asked them to withhold spending on the NGA relocation until government auditors had time to look into how the decision to locate the new facility just north of downtown St. Louis was made. The Illinois legislators wanted the NGA to be relocated to a site near Scott Air Force Base in St. Clair County.