Sen. Mitch McConnell returned to the Senate floor Monday, voting for the first time in nearly three months after an extended absence following an injury from a fall earlier this summer.
“My recovery has been a long and often frustrating process, and the lingering effects of childhood polio haven’t made it any easier,” he said in a statement. “I’m still not quite back to 100%, but I’ve assured Leader Thune that, as I continue with physical therapy on the advice of my doctors, I will do my best to be present for tough votes when our Conference needs me.”
The Kentucky Republican, 84, was hospitalized June 14 after a fall and subsequent pneumonia, missing weeks of votes during a prolonged stay at the hospital and rehabilitation center, along with a period of recovery at home. His long public absence, as well as the relatively sparse updates from his staff, fed months of speculation, including from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat.
His return to the Senate is viewed as crucial for GOP leaders as they try to move key legislative priorities forward this work period, including the farm bill. In August, during a markup of that bill in the Senate Agriculture Committee, McConnell “voted by proxy,” which doesn’t count toward advancing a bill to the full chamber floor. His absence effectively stalled the bill.
The importance of his vote in a sharply divided Senate was immediately evident Monday night: McConnell’s vote helped invoke cloture on a judiciary nominee, Matthew Byrne to be district judge for the Southern District of Ohio, with a nail-biter 47-46 tally amid other senators’ absences on the first vote back from August recess.
“Time to get back to work, finish the job for this Congress. I’m here to work on the farm bill,” he told reporters on Monday evening, seated in a wheelchair. “As I think you know, I have an ongoing interest in NATO and backing up our good friends who are totally in the fight against the Russians.”
McConnell is retiring at the end of this year after more than 40 years in the Senate, having been elected in 1984, including setting the record as longest-serving party leader; he led Senate Republicans from 2007 until John Thune of South Dakota took up the mantle last year.
McConnell, a survivor of childhood polio, has sustained some falls in recent years, and has also fended off questions about his ability to continue to serve after a series of freezing events in 2023.
Still, on Monday evening, he tried to make light of his health problems.
“I must admit, after two years, two decades, actually, [of] dodging your questions, I wasn’t sure how many of you would be here today,” he told reporters. “But I’m glad to see you.”
