Illnesses, age pose risk for GOP hold on Senate

WASHINGTON - Top Republicans coping with a razor-thin majority in the Senate as they try pushing a partisan agenda are running smack into another complication — the sheer age and health issues of some senators.

One of those ailing senators — 79-year-old Thad Cochran of Mississippi — was back in Washington on Tuesday after a month of treatment at home. A statement said he still had urological problems and his treatment “could affect his work schedule.” A day earlier, aides had said Cochran would return to the Senate “when his health permits.”

Cochran’s prolonged absence underscores the challenges of navigating the second-oldest Senate ever. Without him, party leaders could afford just one Republican defector on a pivotal budget vote this week, and the Appropriations Committee that Cochran leads hasn’t churned out any spending bills for next year since he was last in Washington in mid-September.

Cochran isn’t the only GOP senator with health problems that have caused them to miss time this year in Washington. In July, the Senate delayed votes for a week on repealing President Barack Obama’s health care law after Sen. John McCain of Arizona, now 81, was diagnosed with brain cancer. And Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson, 72, was away for two back surgeries early this year, two years after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative neurological condition.

In addition, a pair of 80somethings are up for reelection in 2018, one from each party. They’re among 16 senators facing re-election who come Election Day 2018 will be at least 65 — an age when many people have already retired.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, RUtah, 83, hasn’t announced a final decision on whether he’ll seek an eighth, six-year term next year. On the Democratic side, California’s Dianne Feinstein — at 84 the oldest current senator — has announced she will run again in 2018. If re-elected, she could serve until she’s 91 — an age reached by only four other senators while in office.

“The ability to get things done counts. And the compassion, vigor, and stamina to make a difference counts,” she said last week, as if pre-emptively fending off questions about her age.

That didn’t stop 50year-old Kevin De Leon, president pro tem of the California state Senate, who on Sunday announced his Democratic primary challenge to Feinstein.

Sen. Mazie Hirono, DHawaii, who turns 70 in November, was diagnosed with kidney cancer this year but has said she’ll seek re-election next November. Also facing reelection are at least three other cancer survivors: Sens. Claire McCaskill, DMo., Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Angus King, I-Maine.

Overall, senators averaged 61.8 years old when the current two-year Congress began in January, according to the Senate Historical Office. That’s tied for second oldest with the Senate that began in 2007. That was surpassed only by the two-year session that began in 2009, when senators averaged 62.7 years of age.

Right now, the chamber has seven senators at least 80 years old — excluding Cochran, who reaches that age in December. Seventeen are in their 70s.