California Sen. Dianne Feinstein returned to the Senate on Wednesday after a two-and-a-half-month absence because of sickness, giving majority Democrats a much-needed final vote as they search to substantiate President Joe Biden’s nominees and lift the nation’s debt ceiling within the coming weeks.
Trying noticeably thinner and frail, Feinstein is utilizing a wheelchair to get across the Capitol as she continues to get well from a case of shingles. She missed the Senate’s first votes on Wednesday morning however arrived exterior the Senate in a automotive for a day vote, helped into the wheelchair by aides and greeted by Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer with a handshake and affectionate pat on the again.
In a press release, Feinstein, 89, stated she was persevering with to get well from uncomfortable side effects of the shingles virus and would work a decreased schedule. Whereas she had returned to Washington on Tuesday, she missed a vote on Tuesday night and two votes on Wednesday morning earlier than returning for the afternoon vote to substantiate a Division of Training nominee.
“My docs have suggested me to work a lighter schedule as I return to the Senate,” Feinstein stated within the assertion. “I’m hopeful these points will subside as I proceed to get well.”
Feinstein’s return after 10 weeks away from the Senate offers Democrats a greater cushion as they navigate their slender 51-49 majority. She had requested Schumer to quickly substitute her on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the place a few of Biden’s judicial nominations have stalled with out her tie-breaking vote. However Republicans blocked that request final month, giving Democrats few choices to maneuver these nominees – and vital payments, like a possible debt bundle – until she returned or resigned.
Nonetheless, it’s unclear if Feinstein will be capable to be current for each essential vote. Her workplace stated that whereas she was initially recognized with shingles on Feb. 26 and briefly hospitalized, she continues to be experiencing uncomfortable side effects like imaginative and prescient and stability impairments.
The sickness got here after Feinstein already had grown extra frail lately, and has at instances appeared confused or disoriented when speaking to reporters within the Capitol. However she has defended her effectiveness.
In her assertion, Feinstein stated that the “most urgent” challenge dealing with the Senate is to lift the debt ceiling and keep away from default. “I additionally sit up for resuming my work on the Judiciary Committee contemplating the president’s judicial nominees,” she stated.
Feinstein made the bizarre request to be quickly changed on the panel after stress from Democrats who’re involved in regards to the judicial nominees and amid some requires her resignation. Her workplace had not given a date for her return, making a headache for Democrats who’re hoping to make use of their majority to substantiate as lots of Biden’s judicial nominees as potential.
Republicans balked, saying they’d not assist Democrats affirm nominees who couldn’t transfer with out bipartisan help. Schumer declined to carry a vote on Feinstein’s request after it grew to become clear it might not move.
She had requested for the substitute after Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., known as on her to resign from the Senate, saying it was “unacceptable” for her to overlook votes to substantiate judges who could possibly be weighing in on abortion rights, a key Democratic precedence.
Feinstein has progressively stepped again from a number of senior positions lately. In 2020, she stated she wouldn’t function the highest Democrat on the judiciary panel after criticism from liberals about her dealing with of Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s affirmation. Earlier this yr, she stated she wouldn’t function the Senate president professional tempore, or probably the most senior member of the bulk occasion, although she was in line to take action. The president professional tempore opens the Senate each day and holds different ceremonial duties.
The long-serving California senator has had a trailblazing political profession and shattered gender limitations. She was the primary girl to function president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors within the Seventies and the primary feminine mayor of San Francisco. She ascended to that publish after the November 1978 assassinations of then-Mayor George Moscone and Metropolis Supervisor Harvey Milk by a former supervisor, Dan White. Feinstein discovered Milk’s physique.
Within the Senate, she was the primary girl to go the Senate Intelligence Committee and the primary girl to function the Judiciary Committee’s high Democrat.
