[MSN] Sen. John Fettermanthe brain-damaged Dem U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania
is to return to the Senate this evening for the first time since mid-February, after a six-week hospitalization for clinical depression.
The Pennsylvania senator is expected to join a roll call vote to advance a nominee for deputy under secretary of defense, Radha Iyengar Plumb,
If that's not an alias it should be...
to a confirmation vote. He’ll cochair a panel hearing on Wednesday.
The highly routine moment will likely be met with outsized attention, given the Democrat’s path to the U.S. Senate — suffering a stroke, winning a politically coveted open seat, and then sharing his struggles with depression and seeking treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Fetterman hasn’t voted in the chamber, where Democrats have a razor-thin majority, since Feb. 15. Few major legislative decisions, however, have come before the Senate in the weeks he was away. Senators have spent almost all their time on confirmation votes, mostly on noncontroversial nominees who have enough support to advance even without Fetterman.
A U.S. senator openly seeking treatment for mental health is rare. So is staying 44 days in a Pa. hospital for depression.
Fetterman left the hospital March 31 and returned home to Braddock, Pa., where his wife, Gisele, shared updates of him spending time with the family and enjoying Easter.
His staff released a letter from doctors at Walter Reed that described his depression as in remission. It also provided new information on Fetterman’s physical health.