When Senator Dianne Feinstein walked into a courtroom this month to reclaim her seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee after a month-long absence, she was accompanied by a phalanx of aides.
Two staff members eased the 89-year-old California Democrat into a chair on the dais as the assembled senators greeted their ailing colleague with a round of applause. When Ms. Feinstein spoke, during a vote on one of several President Biden judicial nominees whose approval she had awaited her return, she appeared to read a piece of paper handed to her by a female aide sitting behind her.
“Mr. President, I request that my vote in person be recorded on the three nominees considered above, and I now vote in favor,” he said.
The aide knelt next to her and whispered in her ear between votes, repeatedly emerging from his seat to consult with the senator, at one point removing the paper Ms. Feinstein had read and presenting her with a folder that appeared to contain General Information on the nominees.
The scene was typical of Ms. Feinstein’s day-to-day existence on Capitol Hill, where she is surrounded by an entourage of staff members who perform more than just the duties of typical congressional aides: advising on policy, keeping track of the schedule, writing statements. and speeches, but also as the de facto companions of a senator whose age, failing health and memory problems make it difficult for her to function alone.
His roles have come under increased scrutiny as several Democrats and many of Feinstein’s constituents grow increasingly concerned about his refusal to step down from a position he is unable to fill without a strong and constant reliance on his aides.
They push your wheelchair, remind you how and when to vote, and intervene to explain what happens when you get confused. They stay with her in the cloakroom just off the Senate floor, where Feinstein has made a habit of waiting his turn to vote and then appears at the door to register his “yes” or “no” from the outer edge of the chamber.
All senators are heavily dependent on staff. But for years, Ms. Feinstein’s memory problems have meant that she has needed far more support than other senators. Briefing her on the news of the day requires longer sessions and more background information.
He has at times expressed confusion about the basics of how the Senate works. When Vice Speaker Kamala Harris presided over the chamber last year in one of the many cases in which she was asked to cast a tie-breaking vote, Ms. Feinstein expressed confusion, according to a person who witnessed the scene, asking her colleagues: “What is she doing here? Staff members have been overheard explaining to her that she can’t leave yet because there are more votes to come.
Since returning to work with limited hours while recovering from shingles and multiple serious complications, Ms. Feinstein’s staff have ensured that she is never alone and highly protected. Capitol Police and the Senate sergeant-at-arms have done everything possible to keep Ms. Feinstein protected from photographers and reporters. The Los Angeles Times reportedhelping to create a bubble around him while attendees interfere on his behalf.
Reporters have at times been asked to keep a respectful distance from the senator, while staff members have tried to hide her from photographers.
It’s a daunting task for Feinstein’s aides, many of whom have been with her for decades. They are struggling to find a way to balance their jobs as public servants with their responsibilities to a greatly diminished lawmaker who is still charged with representing California’s 40 million residents and who sometimes makes public statements that are not true.
After The New York Times revealed this month that Ms. Feinstein had shingles encephalitis, a condition that had not been disclosed by her office, she denied the story, telling a CNN reporter that she managed to reach out to she on Capitol Hill who had just had a “bad flu.” Her spokeswoman, Adam Russell, later issued a statement correcting her and confirming that the senator had encephalitis, which she said she “resolved on its own” in March. Mr Russell said she also had Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which can cause facial paralysis.
“They have a responsibility to give her brutally honest advice and then adhere to her wishes, since she, not they, was chosen,” said David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to former President Barack Obama. “And they have an obligation to help her fulfill her own responsibilities to her state and her office.”
Staff members in Ms. Feinstein’s office say they are engaging in frank discussions with her about her future and are not shielding her from reality. So far, she has insisted that she can work and that she has no plans to step down before her term ends in 2025; she is not seeking re-election.
Her aides do not issue any statements without Ms. Feinstein’s go-ahead, describing her as strong-willed even in her diminished state.
“All senators rely heavily on staff to get the job done, particularly a senator who represents 40 million people,” said his chief of staff, James Sauls. “While she is advised by staff, ultimately she is the one who makes the decision about the best course of action for the people of California.”
However, Ms Feinstein’s staff has faced criticism from the left who have angered her refusal to resign immediately and who argue that her aides are complicit in helping prop up a lawmaker who should no longer be in office. .
This month, an Intercept reporter, Ken Klippenstein, posted on Twitter the names, salaries and other details of senior and lower-level staff members in Ms Feinstein’s office, writing that it was “time to name and shame.” to Dianne Feinstein’s staff, all of whom should be blacklisted from politics forever for caring so little about their country that they refuse to resign.”
The posts were condemned by many on the left and right, and were eventually removed.
For now, her aides have been left to figure out how to make Ms. Feinstein’s office run as smoothly as possible in the absence of a fully functioning senator. They have, some of them said, relying on the senator’s three-decade policy positions and the explicit systems she put in place long ago that were designed to make her office efficient, and that earned her a reputation for running one of the most demanding workplaces on Capitol Hill.
Ms. Feinstein, whose aides say she’s never taken a real vacation, expects the same level of commitment to the job that she puts into it.
Staff meetings have hierarchical seating assignments. All attendees are expected to write what is known as a “weekly,” a memo detailing their work for the week for the senator to review.
The information is given to Ms. Feinstein in color-coded folders. There is a format to send voting recommendations to the senator. And the office has a vast library of letters to respond to some five million pieces of voter mail it receives each year.
In recent months, decades-old systems are helping the office do without her, as she was handed Ms. Feinstein’s blue-tabbed press kit, filled with depressing clips about her health, editorials calling for his resignation and polls showing that most California voters want Ms. Feinstein to resign.`
Ms. Feinstein has recently lost some of the staff members who know her and her systems best. David Grannis, her longtime chief of staff, left the office earlier this year in a long-planned move. Her longtime communications director, Tom Mentzer, died in late February.
Still, many of the top members of her policy staff have been with her for more than a decade and feel a great sense of loyalty to Ms. Feinstein, and equally dedicated to their issues of expertise. They continue her work, communicating with the senator via phone, memos and faxes. (Yes, Feinstein’s office still sends faxes.)
Since returning to Washington, Ms. Feinstein has missed six votes and has not participated in any committee hearings or caucus luncheons. Still, there is a feeling among her staff members that the office needs to keep running. And the reality of the Senate is that, even with a senator out of the picture, an office can function quite normally.
Caseworkers handle matters that would never have risen to the level of a senator: passport renewal applications, providing assistance to those applying for U.S. citizenship, helping those applying to a military service academy or seeking relief from a decision federal administrative.
Staff members in Washington and California also review grant requests according to a long-standing system, which now helps them expedite the process that ultimately requires Ms. Feinstein’s approval for funding, even if she’s not there. present.
And Ms. Feinstein has always been businesslike, preferring to communicate with her Senate colleagues through letters or memos rather than face-to-face.
Since returning, Ms. Feinstein has cosponsored legislation to support the development of facilities using wood from hazardous wildfire fuel reduction projects. She also cosponsored legislation with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, that would allow independent music creators to deduct all their production expenses in the year they are incurred, rather than later.
Still, his aides have taken on an outsized role that Feinstein once found hard to swallow.
“You can’t let the staff run you,” he told his biographer, Jerry Roberts, in the 1990s. “The person in charge has to be the guide post.”