‘It’s unbelievable’: GOP senators lose patience as senator’s absence ties agenda in knots

GOP senators sounded off on Sen. Mitch McConnell‘s (R-KY) extended absence and suggested a rule change to claw back leverage, according to a new report from NOTUS.

In a Thursday article, GOP senators discussed the key votes they’re losing in Senate committees while McConnell has been hospitalized for most of the past two months.

“We’re at 52,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told NOTUS, referring to how the GOP is effectively short of the 53 seats it nominally holds in the Senate. “This is the reality.”

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) expressed her frustration with a nearly month-long standstill in the Senate Appropriations Committee, as she told NOTUS it’s “impossible” to have conversations and advance bipartisan legislation to avoid a government shutdown. The committee is split at 14-14 with McConnell’s absence, NOTUS noted.

“We miss not just his vote. We miss him,” Capito said. “But it definitely has an impact on approps. It’s probably the most deeply felt.”

Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV) told NOTUS that Congress should pass a bill to prevent legislative impasses caused by long absences and allow parties to pick replacements for lawmakers absent for more than 30 days.

“That completely is so reasonable it’s unbelievable to me,” Justice said. “Let’s just pray that he gets back really, really soon and gets back in a good, healthy way where we can move this along.”

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) complained to NOTUS about absences in his party generally, saying, “Basically, we’ve been unable to do stuff today in committees” because of missing Republicans.

“All the committees I was in today had to be canceled or couldn’t do business because Republicans weren’t there,” Hawley told NOTUS. “And I’m like, wow, we’ve got two weeks to go.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, predicted McConnell “will be back in September,” she told NOTUS.