McConnell not yet cleared to return to Senate

Senator Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said today he has been discharged from the hospital but is still in rehabilitation, as his absence from the Senate reached 43 days.

In an update, McConnell said he is not cleared to return to the Senate and will be unable to make his annual appearaance at Fancy Farm in Kentucky this Saturday. The press release from his office included a statement from the Office of the Attending Physician that says McConnell is not medically cleared to leave the rehab facility, where he has been doing “strenuous” physical therapy multiple times daily. The OAP said that the senator’s childhood polio case is a “significant factor in his mobility.”

McConnell was hospitalized in mid-June after a fall rendered him "briefly unconscious," he said in a July 12 statement. He also had a mild case of pneumonia during his hospitalization, according to that statement. He has been absent from the Senate since then, prompting widespread speculation about his condition and narrowing the GOP's margin in the Senate. 

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Journalist Nicholas Ballasy posted a video Saturday in which Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said she had spoken with someone who visited McConnell, and that person said he was “clear-minded and he just needs to get stronger.” 

McConnell did not specify when he would be able to return to the Senate.

His return is highly awaited by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., who told Agri-Pulse that he is "committed" to marking up the farm bill before the Senate's August recess, which begins Aug. 7. "We want Senator McConnell there, but I think we have a product that we can get out of committee, with or without him," Boozman told Agri-Pulse last week. 

Committee aides say they are hopeful a farm bill markup happens next week. 

The Senate Agriculture Committee has 12 Republicans and 11 Democrats. Without McConnell present, Republicans do not hold a majority.

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