Bost and Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Reps. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, and Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, met Thursday with Cardillo to reiterate their arguments. Bost said Cardillo turned down his request to extend the public comment period on the decision, which Cardillo has already done once.

David Berczek, a spokesman for Cardillo, said that the director “felt it was a constructive engagement that helped him to continue to think through the process leading to his issuance of a record of decision in early June.”

Missouri members of Congress have made dual national defense and local economic benefit arguments for the St. Louis site, saying it is important for the federal government to keep the high-tech facility in an urban area, with all its amenities, while boosting the St. Louis economy in an area of the city that needs it.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., told reporters this week that he saw no roadblocks to the St. Louis site, and a member of his staff pointed out that the House’s defense budget blueprint cut the new site funding before Cardillo announced its tentative location in April. Blunt’s staff attributed the House’s lower funding levels to displeasure among House appropriators over how much information about the new site NGA officials were providing.