‘PRECAUTION’

Patrick Leahy, Longest Serving Member of Senate, Rushed to Hospital

The most senior Democratic senator “was not feeling well” Thursday night.

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy was taken to hospital Thursday night after he was “not feeling well,” his office said in a statement. The 82-year-old Democrat—who is the longest currently serving member of the Senate—was hospitalized in Washington, D.C., “for tests, as a precaution,” his office added. His doctors recommended that he stay at the facility overnight. Leahy is set to retire at the end of the year following eight terms in the Senate after first being elected in 1974. His glittering career has seen him appointed as the chair of the Appropriations Committee and Senate pro tempore—a role which makes him third in the line of presidential succession. Leahy broke his hip in a fall earlier this year and he was briefly hospitalized in 2021.