Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will return to the chamber Monday after recovering from a fall that left him with a concussion and fractured rib.
The Kentucky Republican fell last month at a Washington, D.C., hotel and has been absent from the Senate since. Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., working with McConnell’s leadership staff, has been the GOP’s point man. That will change next week.
“I am looking forward to returning to the Senate on Monday. We’ve got important business to tackle and big fights to win for Kentuckians and the American people,” McConnell said in a Thursday tweet. His March trip-and-fall came during a fundraising event.
The Senate has been down from its full count for weeks. Before the two-week recess, 96 senators voted on a measure to roll back the authorizations for the use of military force that blessed the two Bush presidents’ Iraq conflicts.
Among those not present in the chamber were three ailing senators: McConnell; Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who has been sidelined by a bout with shingles; and Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who has been battling depression.
Like McConnell, Fetterman is set to return next week. Feinstein’s office has not put a timetable on her return, saying only she wants to get back to Washington “as soon as possible.”
Upon his return, the 81-year-old McConnell could face questions about the 89-year-old Feinstein’s political fate. California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna on Wednesday called for Feinstein to resign, tweeting that “it is obvious she can no longer fulfill her duties.” Feinstein, who has announced she will not seek reelection, later in the day said she would temporarily give up her Judiciary Committee seat until she can return to work.
Senate Democratic leaders and Biden White House officials are eager to move a number of judicial branch nominees out of the committee, something they have been unable to do without Feinstein’s vote.
Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, D-Conn., on Thursday morning called Feinstein a “legend,” and advised on MSNBC that Khanna and other House members let senators make their own decisions.
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