GOP leader McConnell returning to Senate after head injury

April 17, 2023  -WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell will be back at work in the U.S. Capitol on Monday, almost six weeks after a fall at a Washington-area hotel and extended treatment for a concussion.

The longtime Kentucky senator, 81, has been recovering at home since he was released from a rehabilitation facility March 25. He fell after attending an event earlier that month, injuring his head and fracturing a rib.

He visited his office Friday, the first time since his injury, and is expected to be working a full schedule in the Senate this week.

“I am looking forward to returning to the Senate on Monday,” McConnell tweeted on Thursday. “We’ve got important business to tackle and big fights to win for Kentuckians and the American people.”

McConnell returns to the Senate ahead of a busy stretch in which Congress will have to find a way to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and negotiate additional aid for the Ukraine war, among other policy matters. And he comes back as several other senators have been out for medical reasons, raising questions about how much the Senate will be able to achieve in the coming months with a 51-49 split between the parties.

Already, the GOP leader’s absence, along with those of Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and John Fetterman, among others, have added to the Senate’s lethargic pace in the first few months of the year. Unlike the last two years, in which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was able to push through key elements of President Joe Biden’s agenda with the help of a Democratic-led House, the Senate has been significantly slowed with Republicans now in charge in the House. And absences have made even simple votes like nominations more difficult.