Democrats had seven senators absent on the vote.
Democratic aides stated the timing of Mr. Schumer’s bout with the coronavirus, his first for the reason that begin of the pandemic, might have been worse. Whereas it made for a halting begin after a two-week break, the Senate was not anticipated to do any substantial legislative work this week, together with on Democrats’ tax and home spending package deal, which the get together plans to attempt to revive this week and push by way of the Senate over Republican opposition.
Nonetheless, Monday was imagined to be the beginning of a five-week burst of exercise earlier than the Senate adjourns for its annual summer time break in August, and the longest such stretch earlier than the midterm elections in November.
The prolonged absence of Mr. Leahy, coupled with the coronavirus instances, underscored the fragility of the 50-50 majority within the Senate, the place there’s all the time a worry that any of the get together’s half-dozen octogenarians might fall ailing and undergo a chronic absence that would imperil or delay Democratic laws or presidential appointments that don’t have any Republican assist.
In February, Senator Ben Ray Luján, 49, Democrat of New Mexico, suffered a stroke. Though he recovered rapidly, his sickness served as a reminder that Democrats are by no means a couple of sudden sickness away from dropping their working majority.
And whereas Covid instances in Congress appeared to have subsided considerably in latest months, extra lawmakers — like many different Individuals — have just lately been reporting instances as a brand new variant, probably the most transmissible but, rips by way of the US.
Within the Home, Consultant Katie Porter, Democrat of California, stated on Monday that she had examined constructive after being uncovered whereas working in her residence state. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has prolonged proxy voting, which she instituted within the Home in the beginning of the pandemic, by way of Aug. 12, allowing lawmakers to proceed to vote remotely.