Democrats, bedeviled by absences, hope to get back to full strength
Al Weaver
Senate Democrats were handed a major boost this week when news emerged that Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) will return to the Capitol when the upper chamber wraps up its April recess as they hope to finally get down to brass tacks on their agenda and confirmation plans in the coming weeks.
Fetterman will return to work more than two months after being hospitalized at nearby Walter Reed Military Medical Center with clinical depression, which aides have said he has dealt with for years, but had gotten significantly worse before he checked himself in for treatment.
His absence and that of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who has been sidelined since she was hospitalized last month with shingles, have created problems for Democrats as they have been forced to operate, at best, with a 49-49 majority.
Even with some Republican absences — most notably, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been away from the chamber in recent weeks after a fall — Democrats struggled without the pair, particularly at the committee level where they have been unable to move partisan nominees from various panels to votes on the Senate floor.
“We hope to be back to full strength right after Easter and to get back down to business,” Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told The Hill.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3926926-senate-democrats-hope-to-get-back-down-to-business-with-fetterman-return/
