{"id":568549,"date":"2023-04-03T00:44:59","date_gmt":"2023-04-02T21:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/democrats-bedeviled-by-absences-hope-to-get-back-to-full-strength\/"},"modified":"2023-04-03T00:44:59","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T21:44:59","slug":"democrats-bedeviled-by-absences-hope-to-get-back-to-full-strength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/democrats-bedeviled-by-absences-hope-to-get-back-to-full-strength\/","title":{"rendered":"#Democrats, bedeviled by absences, hope to get back to full strength"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/03\/fettermanjohn_feinsteindianne_033023mm-gn-ag_split_absences.png?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Senate Democrats were handed a major boost this week when <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>His absence and that of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who has been sidelined since she was hospitalized last month with shingles,\u00a0have created problems for Democrats as they have been forced to operate, at best, with a 49-49 majority.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Even with some Republican absences \u2014 most notably, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been away from the chamber in recent weeks after a fall \u2014 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope to be back to full strength right after Easter and to get back down to business,\u201d Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told The Hill.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For Durbin, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the issue has been more acute. The panel was forced to postpone markups for three\u00a0straight weeks due to Feinstein\u2019s absence, leaving a number of nominees in limbo. Democrats hold an 11-10 advantage on the committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told The Hill that he expects both Fetterman and Feinstein in the Capitol once lawmakers are back from the two-week recess stretch.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He said their return \u201cjust makes it easier,\u201d noting the absences complicated the path to win the requisite 60 votes to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have absences, it just has a way of upsetting the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>le cart sometimes on scheduling issues,\u201d Kaine added. \u201cSo yeah, we\u2019re very excited to have them back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Among the nominees who\u2019ve been delayed are Michael Delaney, who President Biden tapped to fill the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacancy, and Charnelle Bjelkengren, a district court judge nominee for the Eastern District of Washington.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Delaney\u2019s confirmation is in trouble over his handling of a sexual assault case at a boarding school in New Hampshire. As for Bjelkengren, she is the target of GOP opposition after she stumbled over some questions during her confirmation hearing.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Also being held up is the nomination of Orelia Merchant for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn and two other nominees for trial court seats in New Jersey.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Feinstein will be needed to advance all of those nominees. Since the February recess, the Senate has confirmed one circuit court nominee and 12 district court judges.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt means that we can have a more predictable schedule on nominations. Right now, it\u2019s only when the schedule permits,\u201d said. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). \u201cWe\u2019ll have a better process.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u00a0A spokesperson for the longtime California senator declined to provide an update for when she might resume her work in Washington. Feinstein had initially planned to return by the end of March.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While senators await word on Feinstein, they are plenty excited to have Fetterman coming back into the fold after the struggles of recent months. Senate Democrats rushed to support him amid his time of tumult, and are eager for to see him back in the Capitol complex.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s great news,\u201d said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). \u201cWe all respect his courage and in a post-COVID world, there\u2019s an awful lot of Americans that have some mental health challenges, so I think he\u2019s going to be welcomed back, frankly, by both sides.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Fetterman\u2019s office announced his hospitalization for treatment on Feb. 15. Adam Jentleson, Fetterman\u2019s chief of staff said at the time that the senator has experienced depression \u201coff and on throughout his life. However, it had become \u201csevere\u201d in the weeks before checking into the hospital.<\/p>\n<p>The Pennsylvania Democrat has been closely watched over the past year after he suffered a stroke shortly before the Senate Democratic primary in May. He underwent surgery shortly after his stroke to implant a pacemaker.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) told The Hill on Wednesday that he met Fetterman at Walter Reed on Tuesday and was pleased to see his progress, though Casey noted he was relaying his \u201cnon-medical opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIt was just remarkable how good he looked, how good he sounded. My sense is he\u2019ll be in better shape than he was even before his stroke. He\u2019s really, really in good shape,\u201d Casey said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2023 Nexstar <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Media<\/a> Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/3926926-senate-democrats-hope-to-get-back-down-to-business-with-fetterman-return\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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.\u00a0 Fetterman will return to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":568550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/03\/fettermanjohn_feinsteindianne_033023mm-gn-ag_split_absences.png?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[134344,134417,134418,134353,73114,124783,134190,41445,70289,134446,96428],"class_list":["post-568549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-administration","tag-blog-briefing-room","tag-congress-blog","tag-court-battles","tag-dianne-feinstein","tag-international","tag-john-fetterman","tag-mitch-mcconnell","tag-senate","tag-sunday-talk-shows","tag-tim-kaine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}