GOP lawmakers believe Sen. Mitch McConnell will return to the Capitol this week, ending a three-month health-related absence, according to four people granted anonymity to disclose private conversations.
McConnell’s office is keeping silent about the 84-year-old former Republican leader’s intentions since disclosing last month that he had returned home following weeks in the hospital and rehab. But expectations about a return to the Senate have grown among fellow Kentucky Republicans and his GOP colleagues in the Senate.
The senator’s staff has told senior Republicans that he will be back at the Capitol in time for a Wednesday committee vote on the farm bill, which stalled earlier this summer amid his absence, according to three other people with direct knowledge of the matter who were also granted anonymity.
His vote is needed to get the GOP-written farm bill out of the Agriculture Committee after Chair John Boozman told POLITICO that he is intending to have another vote this week.
Asked Sunday about the rising expectations of McConnell’s return, a spokesperson pointed back to an August statement that said he would be doing physical therapy from home during the Senate’s five-week summer recess. The spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on McConnell attending the Agriculture Committee meeting.
McConnell has not voted in person since his office announced on June 14 that he had been hospitalized, but the lack of details had fueled online conspiracy theories and even calls from some fellow politicians, including Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, for more transparency.
McConnell released a lengthy statement in July explaining that he was initially hospitalized for a fall and later developed pneumonia. He indicated at the time he intended to return to the Senate and serve out the remainder of his term, but he didn’t say when that would happen.
Reporters and social media influencers could be seen Monday morning camped outside McConnell’s Capitol Hill home, watching to see if he leaves for the Senate ahead of a scheduled evening vote.
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