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Fetterman and McConnell return to the Senate, but Feinstein remains in California
WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Sen. John Fetterman both returned to the Capitol on Monday after significant medical absences, leaving only one senator, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, still away with no firm return date.
McConnell, 81, suffered a concussion and a broken rib from a March 8 fall at a Washington hotel. After several days in the hospital, the Kentucky Republican was moved to a rehab facility.
“Suffice to say this was not the first time being hard headed has served me very well,” McConnell quipped Monday, during his first remarks on the Senate floor since the fall. “Needless to say, I am very happy to be back”.
Fetterman, a 53-year-old from Pennsylvania, stepped away from the Senate in February to seek inpatient treatment for clinical depression at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He was released from the hospital in late March.
“I want everyone to know that depression is treatable, and treatment works,” Fetterman said in a statement after returning home from the hospital. “This isn’t about politics — right now there are people who are suffering with depression in red counties and blue counties. If you need help, please get help.”
The return of both Fetterman and McConnell this week after the Senate’s Easter recess has served to highlight the one senator who has not returned from their prolonged medical absence: the California lawmaker Feinstein, an 89-year-old who last voted in the Senate in early February. As the Democratic caucus holds a 51-49 majority in the chamber and slim advantages on its committees, absences can stifle the progress of bills and nominations.
In March, Feinstein announced she had been hospitalized due to shingles, and said she hoped to return to Washington soon. But there is still no firm date for the senator’s return.
The fresh doubts about Feinstein’s health come in addition to longstanding questions about her mental acuity. This combination has sparked first private, and now increasingly public, calls for Feinstein to step down before 2025, when her current term in office ends.
But the senator refused the pressure and dug in. In a statement last week, she said, “I intend to return as soon as possible once my medical team advises that it’s safe for me to travel. In the meantime, I remain committed to the job and will continue to work from home in San Francisco.”
Feinstein did make one concession, agreeing to let Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ask the Senate to approve his request to let someone temporarily fill her spot on the Judiciary Committee. The panel votes on whether to advance President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees.
But in order to fill that spot, Schumer needs either unanimous consent from senators to avoid a vote, or else 10 Republicans to vote with Democrats to break a filibuster.
As of Monday, several Republican senators had already announced they would not green light a replacement by unanimous consent. The odds of 10 Republicans crossing party lines to help Democrats also looked bleak.
Speaking to reporters in Washington, Schumer said he was still optimistic that Republicans would help him fill Feinstein’s committee spot, and he intended to put it to a vote this week. But he declined to speculate on when Feinstein might return to the Senate.
“I spoke to Senator Feinstein just a few days ago. She believes she will return soon. She’s very hopeful of that, and so am I,” said Schumer.
Macron addresses France amid anger over pension reform
French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that he heard people’s anger over raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, but insisted that it was needed.
In televised address to the nation, Macron said “this changes were needed to guarantee everyone’s pension,” after he enacted the pension law on Saturday.
“Gradually working more is also producing more wealth for our whole country,” he added.
Macron acknowledged anger over increasing prices and jobs that don’t “allow too many French people to live well.”
The evening address kicks off a likely arduous battle for the French president, who is trying to repair the damage done to his public image and politics by forcing the pension plan through parliament last month.
Before Macron’s speech, opponents to the reform called for people to bang pots and pans across France during his address.
Macron, who just enacted the protest-igniting pension changes, was expected to provide details about his domestic policies in the coming months.
He said he hopes his address will help the country move away from the period of protests and strikes over the retirement age that threatens the ambitions of his remaining four years in power.
Opponents of the unpopular pension plan called for people to gather in front of city halls to make loud noises during the address, with the rallying cry: “Macron won’t listen to us? We won’t listen to him!”
Such gatherings have been banned by authorities in the cities of Dijon and Marseille, with local prefectures arguing there is a risk of “public disorder.”
Earlier in Marseille, police arrested 13 people after gas and power meters were strewn outside a government building in an unusual trade union demonstration against pension changes. Police said there was a loud blast as the meters were being dumped and that an officer on guard was hit by flying debris.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said Saturday that the government would move ahead with more reforms now that the pension law has been enacted. “In the coming weeks and months ... we are determined to accelerate”, she told the national council of Macron’s Renaissance party.
The government has notably started working on a bill meant to improve employees’ working conditions and bring the unemployment rate down to around 5% — one of Macron’s commitments. France's unemployment rate recently reached 7.2%, its lowest rate since 2008.
Weakened in parliament, where his centrist alliance lost its absolute majority in legislative elections last year, Macron’s government needs to get support from lawmakers from diverse political forces to push ahead with his program. That’s likely to be an uphill task in the uproarious climate of protest sparked by his retirement changes that pick at France’s cherished social safety net.
Borne said Saturday she was “convinced” it was still “possible” to pass bills at parliament by negotiating with lawmakers from the left and the right on a case by case basis.
Labor unions that have been at the forefront of protests, mobilizing millions of marchers in 12 days of nationwide demonstrations and strikes since January, are vowing to fight on. They called for another mass protest on May 1, which is International Workers’ Day.
The pension changes were enacted into law Saturday, the day after the country’s constitutional body rejected some parts of the legislation but approved the higher minimum retirement age.
That key change — central to Macron’s plan and the focus of opponents’ protests — was intended to be a showcase measure of Macron’s second term. But it has come at significant cost to the French president: opinion polls show his popularity has plunged to its lowest level in four years.
His government argued that requiring people to work two years more before qualifying for a pension was needed to keep the pension system afloat as the population ages. Opponents proposed raising taxes on the wealthy or employers instead.
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