Feinstein returning to Capitol Hill after nearly three-month absence, spokesperson says

California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein is returning to Capitol Hill after a nearly three-month absence due to health problems.

A Feinstein spokesperson said the 89-year-old senator could cast a vote as early as Wednesday, according to NBC News. 

The vote, if cast, would be her first since mid-February, when she was diagnosed with shingles, hospitalized, then began a long recovery.

Feinstein returns following calls from fellow congressional Democrats for her to retire early, instead of at the end of this term, as she has promised, arguing her absence, and the absence of her vote, has held up President Biden's judicial nominees. 

"There has been no slowdown," Feinstein wrote in a statement last week after the Judiciary Committee, on which she sits, advanced seven nominees on a bipartisan basis. "I’m confident that when I return to the Senate, we will be able to move the remaining qualified nominees out of committee quickly and to the Senate floor for a vote."