The moment captured on the Senate floor Thursday morning was a quiet but critical one.
Republican leaders were just shy of the votes needed to begin debate on legislation that would overturn an Obama-era rule barring states from withholding family planning funding from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. So they waited.
An hour later, Georgia U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, fresh from the airport, shuffled into the Senate pushing a walker. Accompanying him was Vice President Mike Pence.
Isakson cast his vote in favor of the legislation, bringing the tally to 50-50. Then Pence, in his prerogative as president of the Senate, gave his affirmative tie-breaking vote.
Thursday's surprise event marked Isakson's first time in the U.S. Capitol in roughly six weeks. Ever since mid-February he's been holed up in his Marietta home, recovering from a pair of back surgeries related to a severe case of arthritis.
Some reporters mused on Twitter that Isakson was brought in specifically to save the abortion measure after two Republicans, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowksi of Alaska, voiced their opposition. It wouldn’t be the first time that an ailing senator was brought in to rip a bill from the jaws of defeat.
But Isakson insisted in an interview Thursday that his presence was more coincidental. He said he had been planning to test his recovery in the marble corridors of the Senate this week even before the specific vote was announced.
“It’s one thing to walk around in your living room in your house or back and forth down your driveway and your street. It’s another thing to be here with everything else that’s going on,” he said. “So we decided last week to try and come this week. The coincidence of everything that happened was more coincidence than plan.”
Isakson said his doctor had cleared him to travel for the day, and a physician’s assistant accompanied him on his trip. From there, Isakson said he’s taking things “one week at a time.”
“I’m on a strict, self-imposed goal of making sure that I come back when I’m physically able to do the job the people of Georgia expect me to do for them, and that’s what I’m going to do,” he said.
In the meantime, Isakson said he’ll telework and fly back to Washington “as frequently as I can … governed by my physical condition and the progress I’ve made in rehabilitation.” He’s also undergoing a regimen of physical and occupational therapy and watching a considerable amount of C-SPAN and cable news.
“I’m probably as engaged or more so than you normally would be because I had the benefit of knowing everything that’s going on and having a TV set in front of me without the liability of being here,” he said.
Isakson may need to make another trip to Washington as soon as next week. Senate Republicans may need his vote to break through another Democratic resistance effort — an expected filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. GOP leaders have threatened to execute what is known as the “nuclear option” to prevent such a Democratic blockade on high court picks.
“My option is always to be the team player. I’m on the team and I’ll be doing what Mitch needs me to do,” Isakson said earlier Thursday about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, according to CNN.
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