Mitch McConnell returns to Senate after three-month absence
The Republican senator, absent since June, has faced questions about transparency around his health.
Mitch McConnell returns to Senate after three-month absence
US Senator Mitch McConnell has come back to Congress for the first time since he was hospitalized after a fall three months ago.
"I'm really looking forward to being back on the Senate floor and seeing my colleagues," said the 84-year-old Kentucky Republican before he cast a vote on a judicial nomination.
McConnell's extended absence sparked widespread speculation about his health, along with calls from Democrats for greater transparency.
The longest-serving party leader in Senate history, he has spent 41 years in the Senate.
"My recovery has been a long and often frustrating process, and the lingering effects of childhood polio haven't made it any easier," McConnell said on Monday.
"I'm still not quite back to 100%," he continued, adding that "I will do my best to be present for tough votes".
"I'm glad to get back to more of business as usual on their [fellow Kentuckians'] behalf this month," his statement concluded.
Video of the senator leaving his home in the US capital showed him being placed in a wheelchair and taken into a vehicle.
He appeared shortly afterward on the Senate floor, where several senators greeted him.
McConnell last voted on 11 June. As questions grew about his whereabouts, his office said a month later that he had fallen at home on 14 June and had been treated in hospital for mild pneumonia.
Concerns about the Senate veteran's health have circulated in recent years.
He sustained minor injuries after a fall in 2024. A year earlier, he had another fall that resulted in a concussion and a hospital stay.
Also in 2023, McConnell appeared to stare into space while speaking to reporters, prompting questions about his mental acuity.
His return on Monday came on the first day the Senate reconvened after a five-week break.
Senators are now entering the final stretch of legislative work before November's midterm elections, which could alter the balance of power in Congress.
McConnell, whose term ends in January, is not running for re-election.