A New Jersey Republican congressman recently emerged from 117 days of unexplained absence, saying he’d been hospitalized for clinical depression. Congressmember Tom Kean Jr. spoke from the House floor last week — his first public appearance after missing more than 100 votes.
Rep. Thomas Kean Jr.: “As the over 48 million of my fellow Americans being treated for this illness have come to discover, there is no timeline for healing, there is no timeline for recovery, only the work of getting better one day at a time.”
Congressmember Kean Jr. was fully paid during his nearly four-month unexplained absence from Congress. That’s despite his track record of repeatedly voting against paid sick leave legislation. Mother Jones reports that, as a state lawmaker, he voted against New Jersey’s historic Earned Sick Leave Act, which mandates five paid sick leave days per year. He also voted against New Jersey’s No Surprise Medical Bills Act and two of its paid family leave laws, in 2008 and 2018.