Mitch McConnell returned to the Senate on Monday in a wheelchair, thinner than before and speaking more slowly. The 84-year-old Kentucky Republican had not appeared in public for 92 days. His office waited nearly a month before saying he had fallen at home and later developed mild pneumonia. Nothing in Washington required it to disclose even that.
No federal law or Senate rule requires a senator to disclose their health, and members of Congress file financial disclosures each year listing what they own and owe. Federal law also has no process for declaring a senator too ill to serve, and no state can recall one. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear asked McConnell on 28 July to prove he could serve or resign, and the letter had no legal force. The Senate can expel a member by a two-thirds vote, but it has never used that power for illness.
