Fetterman’’s Return To Senate Floor Starts Off Bumpy

(TheConservativetimes.org) – A prolonged stay at the hospital kept Senator John Fetterman, D-Penn., from the Senate floor until this week. On March 31 Fetterman was discharged and spent the remainder of the congressional recess at his home in Braddock, PA. Fetterman was being treated for clinical depression and began his treatment in mid-February.

The onset of Fetterman’s depression followed a stroke that left him struggling to hear peoples’ voices due to sensorineural hearing loss in both ears and cognitive issues. Fetterman has been fitted with hearing aids.

Upon the end of the Congressional recess Fetterman resumed his chairmanship of the Senate Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics, and Research following his protracted hospital stay.

Fetterman’s opening remarks and questions to witnesses in the subcommittee didn’t go smoothly last week, and also didn’t go unnoticed on social media. A Twitter user called the dialogue “frightening”.

Fetterman returned to Washington on Monday and democrats welcomed him back on Tuesday, April 18, at a weekly closed-door luncheon with praise and applause.

“It was so good to see him with a smile on his face,” said U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., “He was inspiring to all of us in the matter in which he has handled this illness and comeback. He thanked us basically for watching his back. He’s now ready to help us and watch our backs.”

Fetterman and colleagues introduced bipartisan legislation aimed at stopping corruption by banning lawmakers, their spouses, and dependent children from owning or trading stocks and similar equities, an issue he campaigned on.

A few members of Congress have faced scrutiny for trading stocks in the very industries they oversee and may be privy to information that would otherwise be unavailable to the public.

“Lawmakers should not be able to profit off the same companies that they are regulating,” said Fetterman, “Letting members of Congress trade stocks opens the door to corruption. Lawmakers should be focused on getting results for their constituents – not lining their own pockets.”