AOC suggests passing legislation to limit the length of sudden absences: 'This is not normal'

New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested Tuesday that Congress should pass legislation limiting unexpected and sometimes unexplained absences, such as the ones some lawmakers have taken from Congress recently. 

The suggestion comes after New Jersey GOP Rep. Tom Kean Jr., and Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell disappeared from the halls of Congress unexpectedly. Kean later revealed that he was absent because of depression, while McConnell was hospitalized after a fall and has since been battling pneumonia.

The Democratic lawmaker questioned in a comment to Fox News whether McConnell's prolonged absence is "legal at this point," now that he has been missing from the upper chamber for a month. He was first hospitalized on June 14.

"How is everyone pretending this is normal?" Ocasio-Cortez said. "This is not normal. At all. How is it that we have sitting elected members of Congress going missing for months at a time?"

McConnell, a former Senate Republican leader, said Sunday that a fall led to the hospitalization and that the mobility issues that contributed to the fall were from childhood polio. 

He also said he has since developed pneumonia and is working on returning to the Senate floor, but cannot do so yet.

Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged legitimate medical conditions and emergencies are valid, but suggested there should be regulations related to the length of absences, and possible bills to prevent lawmakers from being absent for too long. 

"People get into medical incidents. If you're in the hospital, you're in the hospital," Ocasio-Cortez said. "But I do think that there should be some sort of... there's a line here. And I think almost everyone can agree that it's been crossed."

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.