Whether the officeholder is a Republican, like Sen. Mitch McConnell, or a Democrat, like former President Joe Biden, Americans are right to want clear standards for health, age and fitness to serve.
Mitch McConnell returns to Senate after health-related absence
Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell returned to the Senate after a monthslong absence that fueled nationwide speculation about his well-being.
Sen. Mitch McConnell is back at the U.S. Capitol after a three-month absence for health problems.
The former Senate majority leader has been gone so long that his return set off a media frenzy, and the video footage is worrying. In a viral clip from Sept. 14, reporters asked the longtime Kentucky Republican how he was feeling. McConnell, 84, offered a wave and a thumbs-up, but said nothing.
In a video of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee’s Sept. 16 meeting to advance the farm bill, McConnell appears a bit dazed and confused. The senator was about to vote for the bill when a Republican colleague tried to tell him to vote “no.” He voted for it anyway, and posted on social media about its passage.
The clips show McConnell still recovering, and they are sad to see. The longest serving Senate party leader in U.S. history has served in the Senate for more than four decades, but he’s been absent a quarter of the year and doesn’t appear entirely healthy or lucid. He should be home resting with a cup of tea and a good book, not on Capitol Hill casting a vote on a bill he doesn’t seem to understand. His case and others like it raise the question of whether Congress should impose age or health limits on the men and women who represent Americans.
Mitch McConnell isn’t the only absent representative
After months of near silence, McConnell posted a statement Sept. 14 on X calling his recovery “a long and often frustrating process.” He added: “I will do my best to be present for tough votes when our Conference needs me.”
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, is not convinced.
“I still think he has an obligation to prove to the people of Kentucky that he has the capacity to represent us and represent us well,” Beshear told LEX 18. “That means being able to come day after day, to serve on committees.”
McConnell is not the only lawmaker to spend long stretches away from Capitol Hill for health reasons. Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-New Jersey, returned to Congress on June 30 after almost four months away, during which he was in inpatient treatment for clinical depression.
I’m sure Kean’s constituents sympathize with his struggle, but the U.S. representative missed 140 votes with no explanation until he returned.
Texans saw the same thing in the mysterious absence of former Rep. Kay Granger. Constituents learned in December 2024, weeks before she left office, that Granger hadn’t voted in several months and was living in a senior facility battling dementia.
Granger had a great run as the first Republican woman from Texas to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, but she sadly died this Aug. 3 at the age of 83. Hiding her health problems while serving was an unfortunate blot on her historic tenure.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, was absent for nearly three months of the 2023 congressional session while hospitalized with shingles and related complications. Her absence prompted calls to resign after she missed more than 90 floor votes.
Feinstein had announced she would not seek reelection in 2024, but the longest-serving female senator in U.S. history died Sept. 29, 2023, at 90, before her term ended.
Americans deserve clear standards for health, age and fitness to serve
Asking hard questions about what Americans should expect from those who represent them is prudent. It is neither partisan nor bigoted against older people or those with mental, physical or cognitive health conditions.
Whether the officeholder is a Republican, like McConnell, or a Democrat, like former President Joe Biden, whose obvious decline in office proved as serious as critics warned, Americans are right to want clear standards for health, age and fitness to serve.
Serving in Congress is demanding work. But the minimum standard is modest: A member should be able to function well, communicate regularly with constituents, speak clearly and show up for most votes and sessions, with limited exceptions.
The Constitution sets no quota for votes. But voters should expect members of Congress to have a reasonable level of health, comprehension and lucidity, with exceptions for emergencies, just as private employers expect it of their workers.
In Federalist No. 57, published in 1788, James Madison wrote that a Constitution should first obtain for rulers “men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue the common good of the society.” It should then keep them virtuous “whilst they continue to hold their public trust.”
Lawmakers who appear confused on camera, or who disappear for months without explanation, fall short of both.
Formal age or health limits would be hard to write fairly. Emergencies happen, and illness can be temporary. Congress also cannot add qualifications for its own members by statute, so any limit would take a constitutional amendment.
Age alone is a poor test anyway: Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, turned 93 on Sept. 17 and still holds town halls in all 99 Iowa counties.
That leaves the decision to lawmakers themselves. Members who can no longer do the job should step aside. They entered public service to help the country, and the best thing they can do for it now is retire with dignity.
Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.