After a brief hospitalization Tuesday evening, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Wednesday that he has a “clean bill of health.”
He was back in the Capitol on Wednesday morning to open up a Senate session. Later, he told reporters in Washington, D.C., that he had sought medical care after experiencing muscle spasms late Tuesday.
Leahy, 80, said he was confident he would be able to serve out the rest of his term, which expires in two years. The eight-term senator said he had not yet decided whether he would run again in 2022 — and would not decide until the end of this year.
“You all know this: I never make up my mind until November or December the year before, and I’m not going to now. Usually when we start skiing and snowshoeing, then we talk about it,” Leahy told reporters, according to Politico.
Last week, after Democrats took control of the Senate, Leahy was sworn in as president pro tempore of the Senate, placing him third in line for the presidency, and he took the helm of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Earlier this week, he became the presiding officer at the Senate’s impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
At a press conference Wednesday in Montpelier, Republican Gov. Phil Scott addressed how he would handle a hypothetical vacancy in Vermont’s congressional delegation. State law calls for a special election to be held within six months of a vacancy and empowers the governor to fill the seat until then.
Last year, Scott repeatedly answered questions about his approach to such a situation when the state’s other U.S. senator, Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was running for president and then seeking a position in President Joe Biden’s cabinet. The governor said his answer had not changed — and he would not name a Republican to a seat currently filled by a Democrat.
“If there’s an opening in any legislative seats or otherwise … I would appoint someone from the same party,” he said.
Scott also made clear he thought it unlikely he’d be called upon to make such a decision.
“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” the governor said. “I don’t think there’s a need to do so. And I hope we maintain the congressional delegation over the next two years in its present form.”
