McConnell, Fetterman Return as Senate Back to Work

The Senate is back in session this week, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., returning and executive nominations on the docket.

McConnell, 81, has recovered from a fall and a concussion, while Fetterman, 53, makes his return after treatment for clinical depression, according to reports.

Not returning is Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 89, D-Calif., who has been out since mid-February and has battled health issues, including a hospitalization for shingles.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is going to ask the Senate to grant the request of Feinstein to be reseated on the Judiciary Committee so Democrats can advance President Joe Biden's judicial nominees, but Republicans are suggesting they will use that as negotiation leverage in the narrowly divided Senate.

Schumer has the majority by just 51-49, with 48 Democrats and three who are independent, but caucus with Democrats.

"Republicans should not assist Democrats in confirming Joe Biden's most radical nominees to the courts," Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a Judiciary Committee member, tweeted Saturday.

Among the important Senate events this week, according to reports:

• Voting on judicial nominees.
• Debating a bill to fund local fire departments.
• Full Senate briefing on classified documents leaks Wednesday afternoon.
• Nomination hearings for Julie Su to be Biden's next labor secretary.

With narrow margins in the Senate, even Democrat women senators are concerned about Feinstein's absence keeping them one vote away from getting their agenda across.

"If this goes on month after month after month, then she's going to have to make a decision with her family and her friends about what her future holds because this isn't just about California, it's also about the nation — and we just can't, with this one-vote margin, and expect every other person to be there every single time," Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., told Sunday's ABC "This Week."

"It's going to become an issue as the months go by," she continued, concluding, "she says she's going to return.

"Let's make sure that happens, and it sure better happen before the debt-ceiling vote."

• Senate Dem Women Put on Spot to Defend Feinstein, 89
• Sen. Cotton: Don't Help Dems Replace Feinstein