Despite remaining hospitalized while undergoing treatment for depression, Pennsylvania's Fetterman co-sponsored a plan on train safety.
or senior advisor Bobby Maggio — visit Fetterman at the hospital most mornings and brief him for around an hour. They bring updates from Capitol Hill and ask for input on thorny questions, Jentelson said in an interview.
Staffers can help negotiate a bill or draft a press release. They handle nearly all constituent services. But Beynon, who expressed sympathy for Fetterman’s health problems and wished him well, said that on tough issues, personal interaction is one of a senator’s most powerful tools. Only a senator can corral a colleague or a Cabinet secretary who’s on the fence.
A number of senators have missed far more time than Fetterman — some close to a year — due to strokes or other ailments. And aides have done most of the lifting for some older senators who have declined while in office. There are also few major legislative decisions at the moment, with Democrats holding a narrow Senate majority and facing a GOP-controlled House that would likely oppose most ideas Democrats pass anyway. The Senate has spent almost all its time on confirmation votes, mostly on non-controversial nominees who have enough support to advance even without Fetterman. .
“There are obviously some aspects that are unusual, but fundamentally it’s not a whole lot different than how it would have transpired if John was in the office,” Jentleson said.whom Fetterman replaced, said aides can handle many matters where a senator’s positions are clear. But in a situation like the one in East Palestine, direct action from a senator can make a difference, such as pushing a Cabinet member, like Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, for specific steps.
“We’re trying to think through ways for him to be involved even if he has to do that remotely,” Jentleson said.One of the most important aspects of a senator’s work happens far from Washington, and the public eye. Senators handle reams of requests from constituents, from help navigating the federal bureaucracy to aid with passports and visas to recommendations for students applying to the service academies.
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