dianne feinstein current committee assignments

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On November 7, 2006, Dianne Feinstein won re-election to the . She defeated Richard Mountjoy (R), Todd Chretien (G), Michael Metti (L), Marsha Feinland (P&F) and Don Grundmann (American Independent) in the general election.

On November 7, 2000, Dianne Feinstein won re-election to the United States Senate . She defeated Tom Campbell (R), Medea Susan Benjamin (G), Gail Katherine Lightfoot (L), Diane Beall Templin (American Independent), Jose Luis Camahort (Reform) and Brian Rees (Natural Law) in the general election. [150]

On November 8, 1994, Dianne Feinstein won re-election to the United States Senate . She defeated Michael Huffington (R), Elizabeth Cervantes Barron (P&F), Richard Benjamin Boddie (L), Paul Meeuwenberg (American Independent) and Barbara Blong (G) in the general election. [151]

Campaign themes

Ballotpedia survey responses.

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Dianne Feinstein completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Feinstein's responses.

What would be your top three priorities, if elected?

1. Universal health care 2. Ending gun violence 3. Comprehensive immigration reform

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I look forward to working every day to solve problems for Californians. If reelected I will continue to fight to protect immigrants, end the targeted attacks on California by Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress, and stand up for our progressive values including job creation, civil rights, voting rights, women's reproductive freedom, respect for immigrants and comprehensive immigration reform, education, health care, and environmental protections.

Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other senators?

As leaders in Washington, we must set a positive example for how we can overcome political division and work respectfully with a common purpose to improve the lives of all Americans. I'm not a name caller. Throughout my career, I've always been willing to work with my colleagues in both parties to enact pragmatic solutions to the problems facing our state and our nation. If re-elected to the Senate, I will continue to work in a bipartisan manner on behalf of the American people.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign website

Feinstein's campaign website stated the following:

Campaign advertisements

The following is an example of an ad from Feinstein's 2018 election campaign.

Notable endorsements

This section displays endorsements this individual made in elections within Ballotpedia's coverage scope .

Ballot measure activity

The following table details Feinstein's ballot measure stances available on Ballotpedia:

Campaign finance summary

Ideology and leadership

Based on an analysis of bill sponsorship by GovTrack , Feinstein was a rank-and-file Democrat as of July 2014. This was the same rating Feinstein received in June 2013. [155]

Lifetime voting record

According to the website GovTrack, Feinstein missed 174 of 7,645 roll call votes from February 1993 to September 2015. This amounts to 2.3 percent, which is worse than the median of 1.6 percent among current senators as of September 2015. [156]

National Journal vote ratings

Each year National Journal publishes an analysis of how liberally or conservatively each member of Congress voted in the previous year. Click the link above for the full ratings of all members of Congress.

Feinstein ranked 22nd in the liberal rankings among U.S. senators in 2013. [157]

Feinstein ranked 26th in the liberal rankings among U.S. senators in 2012. [158]

Feinstein ranked 15th in the liberal rankings among U.S. senators in 2011. [159]

Like-minded colleagues

The website OpenCongress tracks the voting records of each member to determine with whom he or she votes most and least often. The results include a member from each party. [160]

Voting with party

The website OpenCongress tracks how often members of Congress vote with the majority of the chamber caucus.

Feinstein voted with the Democratic Party 96.3 percent of the time, which ranked 18th among the 53 Senate Democratic members as of July 2014. [161]

Feinstein voted with the Democratic Party 95.8 percent of the time, which ranked 13th among the 52 Senate Democratic members as of June 2013. [162]

Congressional staff salaries

The website Legistorm compiles staff salary information for members of Congress. Feinstein paid her congressional staff a total of $4,125,359 in 2011. She ranked 2nd on the list of the highest paid Democratic senatorial staff salaries and ranked 2nd overall of the highest paid senatorial staff salaries in 2011. Overall, California ranked 1st in average salary for senatorial staff. The average U.S. Senate congressional staff was paid $2,529,141.70 in fiscal year 2011. [163]

Noteworthy events

Feinstein requests to temporarily step down from judiciary committee (2023).

Feinstein announced she would request to temporarily step down from the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on April 12, 2023. Feinstein said, "When I was first diagnosed with shingles, I expected to return by the end of the March work period. Unfortunately, my return to Washington has been delayed due to continued complications related to my diagnosis. ...I understand that my absence could delay the important work of the Judiciary Committee, so I’ve asked Leader Schumer to ask the Senate to allow another Democratic senator to temporarily serve until I’m able to resume my committee work." [164] Rep. Ro Khanna (D) tweeted on April 12 that Feinstein could no longer fulfill her duties and needed to resign. [165] Feinstein returned to Washington, D.C., and participated in Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on May 11, 2023. [166]

Alleged insider trading leading up to the U.S. Coronavirus Pandemic (2020)

On March 19, 2020, the New York Times alleged Feinstein, along with some other senators, traded stocks after receiving a Senate Intelligence Committee briefing related to the effect the coronavirus outbreak will have on the American economy. [167] The Department of Justice conducted an investigation into Feinstein's stock sales that closed on May 26, 2020. [168]

Feinstein sold between $1,500,000 and $6,000,000 in stocks days after the briefing. [169]

On March 20, 2020, a spokesperson for Feinstein responded noting most of the stock sales were made by Feinstein’s husband and, “she has no involvement in any of her husband’s financial decisions.” [170]

On May 14, 2020, a spokesperson for Feinstein, Tom Mentzer, said that Feinstein answered questions from federal law enforcement agents and provided documents to the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of the investigation into her and other senators' stock sales. Mentzer said that Feinstein "was happy to voluntarily answer those questions to set the record straight” and that she “provided additional documents to show she had no involvement in her husband’s transactions.” [171] [172]

On May 26, aides from Feinstein's office confirmed that the Department of Justice notified them of the conclusion of the investigation into the trades. [168]

Personal Gain Index

The Personal Gain Index (U.S. Congress) is a two-part measurement that illustrates the extent to which members of the U.S. Congress have prospered during their tenure as public servants. It consists of two different metrics:

• Changes in Net Worth
• The Donation Concentration Metric

PGI: Change in net worth

Based on congressional financial disclosure forms and calculations made available by OpenSecrets.org , Feinstein's net worth as of 2012 was estimated between $42,673,137 and $94,220,020. That averages to $68,446,578 , which is higher than the average net worth of Democratic senators in 2012 of $13,566,333.90. Feinstein ranked as the 4th most wealthy senator in 2012. [173] Between 2004 and 2012, Feinstein's calculated net worth [174] decreased by an average of 1 percent per year. Between 2004 and 2012, the average annual percentage increase for a member of Congress was 15.4 percent. [175]

The data used to calculate changes in net worth may include changes resulting from assets gained through marriage, inheritance, changes in family estates and/or trusts, changes in family business ownership, and many other variables unrelated to a member's behavior in Congress.

PGI: Donation Concentration Metric

Filings required by the Federal Election Commission report on the industries that give to each candidate. Using campaign filings and information calculated by OpenSecrets.org , Ballotpedia calculated the percentage of donations by industry received by each incumbent over the course of his or her career (or 1989 and later, if elected prior to 1988). In the 113th Congress , Feinstein is the Chair of the United States Senate Committee on Intelligence . Feinstein received the most donations from individuals and PACs employed by the Lawyers/Law Firms industry.

From 1991-2014, 17.42 percent of Feinstein's career contributions came from the top five industries as listed below. [178]

• United States Senate
• United States congressional delegations from California

External links

• Search Google News for this topic

• ↑ ABC News , "Sen. Dianne Feinstein, an 'icon for women in politics,' dies at 90, source confirms," accessed September 29, 2023
• ↑ CNN, "Dianne Feinstein announces she won’t run for reelection in 2024," February 14, 2023
• ↑ Encyclopaedia Britannica , "Dianne Feinstein," accessed January 31, 2019
• ↑ Biographical Director of the United States Congress, "Dianne Feinstein," accessed October 20, 2011
• ↑ United States Senate , "Committee Assignments of the 115th Congress," accessed January 19, 2017
• ↑ United States Senate , "Committee Assignments of the 114th Congress," accessed February 17, 2015
• ↑ Congressional Quarterly, "Senate Committee List," accessed January 18, 2003
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.3746 - Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023," accessed February 27, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.J.Res.7 - Relating to a national emergency declared by the President on March 13, 2020." accessed February 23, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.J.Res.44 - Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives relating to "Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached 'Stabilizing Braces'"" accessed February 28, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.J.Res.30 - Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of Labor relating to 'Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights'." accessed February 23, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.3684 - Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act," accessed April 15, 2022
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.1319 - American Rescue Plan Act of 2021," accessed April 15, 2022
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.5376 - Inflation Reduction Act of 2022," accessed January 20, 2023
• ↑ Congress.gov , "S.1605 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022," accessed April 15, 2022
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.7776 - James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023," accessed January 20, 2023
• ↑ Congress.gov , "S.3373 - Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022," accessed January 20, 2023
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.4346 - Chips and Science Act," accessed January 20, 2023
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.3755 - Women's Health Protection Act of 2021," accessed April 15, 2022
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.2471 - Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022," accessed January 20, 2023
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.8404 - Respect for Marriage Act," accessed January 20, 2023
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.6833 - Continuing Appropriations and Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023," accessed January 20, 2023
• ↑ Congress.gov , "S.937 - COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act," accessed April 15, 2022
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.3076 - Postal Service Reform Act of 2022," accessed January 23, 2023
• ↑ Congress.gov , "S.2938 - Bipartisan Safer Communities Act," accessed January 20, 2023
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.5305 - Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act," accessed January 23, 2023
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.Res.24 - Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.," accessed April 15, 2022
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.350 - Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022," accessed January 23, 2023
• ↑ Congress.gov , "S.Con.Res.14 - A concurrent resolution setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2022 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2023 through 2031.," accessed April 15, 2022
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.5746 - Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act," accessed January 20, 2023
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.2617 - Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023," accessed January 20, 2023
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.748 - CARES Act," accessed March 22, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "S.1790 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020," accessed April 27, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.6201 - Families First Coronavirus Response Act," accessed April 27, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.1865 - Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020," accessed April 27, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.6074 - Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020," accessed April 27, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.J.Res.31 - Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019," accessed April 27, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "S.47 - John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act," accessed April 27, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.6395 - William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021," accessed April 27, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "S.1 - Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act of 2019," accessed April 27, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.8337 - Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act," accessed April 27, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.1158 - Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020," accessed April 27, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.3055 - Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2020, and Further Health Extenders Act of 2019," accessed April 27, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.1327 - Never Forget the Heroes: James Zadroga, Ray Pfeifer, and Luis Alvarez Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act," accessed April 27, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.Res.755 - Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.," accessed April 28, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , “H.R.5430 - United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act,” accessed April 28, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "S.151 - Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act" accessed April 28, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.3401 - Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Humanitarian Assistance and Security at the Southern Border Act, 2019,' accessed April 28, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.2157 - Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act, 2019," accessed April 28, 2024
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.J.Res.46 - Relating to a national emergency declared by the President on February 15, 2019.," accessed April 28, 2024
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Motion (Motion to Concur in the House Amendment with an Amendment)," December 18, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Conference Report (Conference Report to Accompany H.R. 2)," December 11, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Nomination (Confirmation Brett M. Kavanaugh, of Maryland, to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States)," October 6, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture Re: Brett M. Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States)," October 5, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On Passage of the Bill (H.R. 2, As Amended)," June 28, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on Amdt. No. 1959)," February 15, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on Amdt. No. 1958 As Modified)," February 15, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on Amdt. No. 1948)," February 15, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on Amdt. No. 1955)," February 15, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On Cloture on the Motion to Proceed (Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to the Consideration of S. 2311)," January 29, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Amendment (McConnell Amdt. No. 667)," July 28, 2017
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Amendment (Paul Amdt. No. 271 )," July 26, 2017
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Motion (Motion to Waive All Applicable Budgetary Discipline Re: Amdt. No. 270)," July 25, 2017
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Motion to Proceed (Motion to Proceed to H.R. 1628)," July 25, 2017
• ↑ U.S. Senate , "On the Nomination (Confirmation: Neil M. Gorsuch, of Colorado, to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States)," April 7, 2017
• ↑ U.S. Senate , "On the Cloture Motion (Upon Reconsideration, Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Nomination of Neil M. Gorsuch of Colorado, to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States)," April 6, 2017
• ↑ U.S. Senate , "On the Decision of the Chair (Shall the Decision of the Chair Stand as the Judgment of the Senate?)," April 6, 2017
• ↑ U.S. Senate , "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Nomination of Neil M. Gorsuch, of Colorado, to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States)," April 6, 2017
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Conference Report (Conference Report to Accompany H.R. 6157)," September 18, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Conference Report (Conference Report to Accompany H.R. 5895)," September 12, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On Passage of the Bill (H. R. 6157 As Amended)," August 23, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On Passage of the Bill (H.R. 5895 As Amended)," June 25, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Motion (Motion to Concur in the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1625)," March 23, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Motion (Motion to Concur in the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1892 with an Amendment (SA 1930))," February 9, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Concur in the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 695)," February 8, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Motion (Motion to Concur in the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment with Further Amendment)," January 22, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture: Motion to Concur in the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 195)," January 22, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture: House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 195)," January 19, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Motion (Motion to Concur in the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1370)," December 21, 2017
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Motion to Recede from the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1 and Concur with Further Amendment ," December 20, 2017
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Joint Resolution (H.J. Res. 123)," December 7, 2017
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On Passage of the Bill (H.R. 1 As Amended )," December 2, 2017
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Concurrent Resolution (H. Con. Res. 71 As Amended)," October 19, 2017
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Motion (Motion to Concur in the House Amdt. to the Senate Amdt. with an Amdt. No. 808 to H.R. 601)," September 7, 2017
• ↑ U.S. Senate , "On the Motion (Motion to Concur in the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 244)," May 4, 2017
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Joint Resolution (S.J. Res. 54, As Amended), December 13, 2018
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On Passage of the Bill (H.R. 2810 As Amended)," September 18, 2017
• ↑ The Hill , "Senate sends $692B defense policy bill to Trump's desk," November 15, 2017
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On Passage of the Bill (H.R. 3364)," July 27, 2017
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On Passage of the Bill (S. 722 As Amended)," June 15, 2017
• ↑ Congressional Record , "Resume of Congressional Activity, First Session of the 113th Congress," accessed April 29, 2015
• ↑ Congressional Record , "Resume of Congressional Activity, Second Session of the 114th Congress," accessed January 5, 2017
• ↑ Congressional Record , "Resume of Congressional Activity, First Session of the One Hundred Fourteenth Congress," April 13, 2015
• ↑ Congress.gov , "HR 1314," accessed May 25, 2015
• ↑ Senate.gov , "H.R. 1314 (Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act)," accessed May 25, 2015
• ↑ Senate.gov , "Roll Call for HR 2146," June 24, 2015
• ↑ The Hill , "Senate approves fast-track, sending trade bill to White House," June 24, 2015
• ↑ The Hill , "Obama signs trade bills," June 29, 2015
• ↑ Congress.gov , "S.Con.Res.11," accessed May 5, 2015
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Conference Report (Conference Report to Accompany S. Con. Res. 11)," accessed May 5, 2015
• ↑ The Hill , "Republicans pass a budget, flexing power of majority," accessed May 5, 2015
• ↑ The Hill , "Redone defense policy bill sails through House," accessed November 12, 2015
• ↑ Congress.gov , "S. 1356," accessed November 12, 2015
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Motion (Motion to Concur in the House Amendment to S. 1356)," accessed November 12, 2015
• ↑ Clerk.House.gov , "Final Vote Results for Roll Call 618," accessed November 12, 2015
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture Re: Conference Report to Accompany H.R. 1735)," accessed October 6, 2015
• ↑ Clerk.House.gov , "Final Vote Results for Roll Call 239," accessed May 27, 2015
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R. 1735," accessed May 27, 2015
• ↑ Congress.gov , "HR 1314 - Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015," accessed November 1, 2015
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Motion (Motion to Concur in the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1314)," accessed November 1, 2015
• ↑ Clerk.House.gov , "Final Vote Results for Roll Call 579," accessed November 1, 2015
• ↑ Congress.gov , "HR 1191," accessed May 8, 2015
• ↑ Senate.gov , "H.R. 1191," accessed May 8, 2015
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on McConnell Amdt. No. 2640 )," accessed September 10, 2015
• ↑ Congress.gov , "HJ Res 61," accessed September 10, 2015
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on McConnell Amdt. No. 2640 )," accessed September 16, 2015
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on McConnell Amdt. No. 2640 )," accessed September 17, 2015
• ↑ Congress.gov , "S.Amdt.2656 to S.Amdt.2640," accessed September 17, 2015
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on McConnell Amdt. No. 2656)," accessed September 17, 2015
• ↑ Congress.gov , "H.R.2048," accessed May 26, 2015
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On Passage of the Bill (H.R. 2048)," accessed June 2, 2015
• ↑ Congress.gov , "S 754," accessed November 1, 2015
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On Passage of the Bill (S. 754, As Amended)," accessed November 1, 2015
• ↑ Congress.gov , "S 2146," accessed November 2, 2015
• ↑ Senate.gov , "On Cloture on the Motion to Proceed (Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to S. 2146)," accessed November 2, 2015
• ↑ Congressional Record , "Resume of Congressional Activity, First Session of the 112th Congress," accessed September 5, 2013
• ↑ Congressional Record , "Resume of Congressional Activity, Second Session of the 113th Congress," accessed March 4, 2014
• ↑ Project Vote Smart , "PN 48 - Nomination of John Brennan to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency - Voting Record," accessed September 25, 2013
• ↑ Senate.gov , "H.R. 2642 (Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013)," accessed February 12, 2014
• ↑ NY Times , "Senate Passes Long-Stalled Farm Bill, With Clear Winners and Losers," accessed February 12, 2014
• ↑ 134.0 134.1 Politico, "Senate approves $1.1 trillion spending bill," accessed January 20, 2014
• ↑ 135.0 135.1 135.2 U.S. Senate, "January 16 Vote," accessed January 20, 2014
• ↑ Roll Call, "House Passes $1.1 Trillion Omnibus," accessed January 20, 2014
• ↑ The Washington Post , "Reid, McConnell propose bipartisan Senate bill to end shutdown, extend borrowing," accessed October 16, 2013
• ↑ Senate.gov, "H.R. 2775 As Amended," accessed October 31, 2013
• ↑ Washington Post , "Which lawmakers will refuse their pay during the shutdown?" accessed October 3, 2013
• ↑ Project Vote Smart , "HR 325 - To Ensure the Complete and Timely Payment of the Obligations of the United States Government Until May 19, 2013 - Voting Record," accessed September 25, 2013
• ↑ Project Vote Smart , "S Amdt 1197 - Requires the Completion of the Fence Along the United States-Mexico Border - Voting Record," accessed September 25, 2013
• ↑ Project Vote Smart , "S 47 - Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 - Voting Record," accessed September 25, 2013
• ↑ U.S. Senate, "Roll Call Vote on the Fiscal Cliff," accessed January 4, 2013
• ↑ 144.0 144.1 CNN "California Senate Race - 2012 Election Center"
• ↑ Inyo Register, "Changes Coming to Elections," accessed February 18, 2012
• ↑ Dianne Feinstein 2012 campaign website, "Home," accessed January 24, 2012
• ↑ California Secretary of State, "Certified list of candidates," accessed June 1, 2012 ( dead link )
• ↑ California Secretary of State, "Unofficial election results," accessed November 7, 2012 ( dead link )
• ↑ U.S. Congress House Clerk , "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 7, 2006," accessed March 28, 2013
• ↑ U.S. Congress House Clerk , "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 7, 2000," accessed March 28, 2013
• ↑ U.S. Congress House Clerk , "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 8, 1994," accessed March 28, 2013
• ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
• ↑ Feinstein for California , "Issues," accessed May 10, 2018
• ↑ Protect Abortion CA , "Our Coalition," accessed December 6, 2022
• ↑ GovTrack , "Dianne Feinstein," accessed July 17, 2014
• ↑ GovTrack , "Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D)," accessed September 23, 2015
• ↑ National Journal , "2013 Senate Vote Ratings," accessed July 17, 2014
• ↑ National Journal , "2012 Congressional Vote Ratings," February 21, 2013
• ↑ National Journal , "Searchable Vote Ratings Tables: Senate," accessed February 23, 2012
• ↑ OpenCongress , "Dianne Feinstein," accessed September 23, 2015
• ↑ OpenCongress , "Voting With Party," accessed July 2014
• ↑ LegiStorm , "Dianne Feinstein," accessed August 6, 2012
• ↑ United States Senator for California Dianne Feinstein , "Feinstein Statement on Returning to Washington," April 12, 2023
• ↑ The Washington Post , "Dianne Feinstein to give up Judiciary Committee seat amid calls for her resignation," April 12, 2023
• ↑ Politico , "Feinstein’s return fails to unstick controversial judicial nominee," May 11, 2023
• ↑ New York Times , "Senator Richard Burr Sold a Fortune in Stocks as G.O.P. Played Down Coronavirus Threat," March 19, 2020
• ↑ 168.0 168.1 The Hill , "Justice Department closing stock investigations into Loeffler, Inhofe, Feinstein," May 26, 2020
• ↑ Forbes , "Senators Accused Of Insider Trading, Dumping Stocks After Coronavirus Briefing," March 20, 2020
• ↑ New York Post , "Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Jim Inhofe made stock trades before coronavirus pandemic," March 20, 2020
• ↑ Politico , "Feinstein talks with FBI about her husband's stock trades," May 14, 2020
• ↑ San Francisco Chronicle , "Sen. Feinstein questioned about husband’s stock trades amid coronavirus outbreak," May 14, 2020
• ↑ OpenSecrets , "Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), 2012," accessed March 4, 2013
• ↑ This figure represents the average annual percentage growth from either 2004 (if the member entered office in 2004 or earlier) or their first year in office (as noted in the chart below) to 2012, divided by the number of years calculated.
• ↑ This number was found by dividing each member's total net worth growth percentage by the number of years included in the calculation.
• ↑ This figure represents the total percentage growth divided by the number of years for which there are net worth figures for each member.
• ↑ This figure was calculated using median asset data from the Census Bureau. Please see the Congressional Net Worth data for Ballotpedia spreadsheet for more information on this calculation.
• ↑ OpenSecrets.org , "Sen. Dianne Feinstein," accessed September 18, 2014

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With Feinstein’s death, what happens with her seat on Judiciary committee, other panels?

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein was the most senior Democrat on two of the Senate’s most powerful committees, and her death could set off a cascade of changes that affect California’s power in Washington.

Soon after news broke Friday that Feinstein, 90, had died overnight, Republican leaders indicated that they would not attempt to block Democrats from filling her committee assignments, including on the powerful Judiciary and Appropriations committees.

Following through would be a departure from their refusal in the spring to appoint a temporary replacement to the Judiciary committee while Feinstein was out for months to recover from a shingles infection . Feinstein’s absence meant Democrats didn’t have enough votes to get judicial nominees out of committee without Republican support.

The Los Angeles Times’ Benjamin Oreskes breaks down how Gov. Gavin Newsom may decide on who will fill the late senators vacant seat and the legacy she leaves behind.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D. ) told Politico that he expects the Senate to follow precedent and allow committee vacancies to be filled without a fight. Republicans previously said in the spring that there was no precedent for temporarily replacing a sitting senator on a committee. Senior GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said that Republicans weren’t going to “help what we consider to be controversial or unqualified nominees to get confirmed.”

Feinstein also served on the Senate Intelligence and Rules committees. Normally senators are assigned to committees by unanimous consent, but that motion can be filibustered. If a senator objects, Democrats would need 60 votes to appoint someone to fill Feinstein’s committee assignments. With an evenly divided Senate, they would need help from 10 senators to fill out the committees.

But even without delays from Republicans, Feinstein’s successor isn’t guaranteed her seats on the powerful Judiciary and Appropriations committees. And Senate Democrats may not want to wait long to fill them, either.

“It’s a complicated weekend for [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer, not only to keep government open but to figure out how he maps out this replacement so that it advantages the Democratic Party,” said associate professor of public policy at Brown University Wendy Schiller, an expert on the Senate.

Until another senator is named to the Judiciary committee, the panel is evenly split with 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats.

California was in the unusual position of having two senators on the Judiciary committee. Sen. Alex Padilla, also a Democrat, is not expected to give up his seat, so it is unlikely that Feinstein’s successor will end up there as well, particularly if other, more senior senators are interested in the spot.

“There’s always a little musical chairs when there’s a vacancy,” said Washington University political science professor Steven Smith. “Feinstein has been in place for a long time.”

Smith said a lot could hinge on how quickly California Gov. Gavin Newsom moves to fill Feinstein’s seat . If he waits several weeks as he did with Padilla’s appointment after then-Sen. Kamala Harris was tapped as Joe Biden’s vice president, Schumer could name a Judiciary committee replacement quickly in an effort to keep Biden’s judicial nominees moving.

Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) was put forward as a temporary replacement for Feinstein on the committee last spring. He has since announced plans to retire at the end of this Congress and has been named Senate Foreign Relations chair.

Moving a senator to a new committee will be just the start of the shuffle, Schiller said.

“Smart senators who shape successful careers think very seriously about their committee assignments. It is the bulk of how they form their reputation, particularly in their first six years,” she said. “It is a complex chess game.”

As for Feinstein’s position on the Senate Appropriations committee, such a seat rarely would go to a freshman senator, particularly one not planning to run for a full term, as would likely be the case with whomever Newsom appoints as Feinstein’s successor. It might be a logical move for Padilla, though, Schiller said, who ran for and won a full term after initially being appointed to his Senate seat.

Home to more than 10% of the U.S. population, California usually sees one of its senators receive a seat on the Appropriations committee, which decides how the government appropriates money, or on the Armed Services committee. Padilla could opt to let go of his seat on the Environment and Public Works committee in exchange for more power on Appropriations, Schiller said.

A spokesperson for Padilla told The Times that any committee changes aren’t under discussion so soon after Feinstein’s death.

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Sarah D. Wire is a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times who covered government accountability, the Justice Department and national security with a focus on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and domestic extremism. She previously covered Congress for The Times. She contributed to the team that won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the San Bernardino shooting and received the Sigma Delta Chi Award for Washington Correspondence in 2020.

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Dianne Feinstein Memorial Trailblazing Politician Remembered as ‘Diamond of the Senate’

Ms. Feinstein “reached the heights of national and global power,” Vice President Kamala Harris said, but was shaped by her home of San Francisco, where she was honored on Thursday.

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Heather Knight

Reporting from San Francisco

‘She showed the way’: Feinstein hailed as a pioneer for women in power.

Almost everyone on the stage outside San Francisco’s City Hall on Thursday afternoon was a woman: the vice president, the former speaker of the House, the city’s mayor and more.

It was a meaningful, and intentional, reminder of the glass ceilings that Senator Dianne Feinstein had broken again and again as the city’s first female mayor and California’s first female senator.

“Millions of girls my age and long after me have grown blissfully free of the yokes our grandmothers wore because Dianne Feinstein wrestled them off,” Mayor London Breed, 49, told the crowd who had gathered in her city under unusually hot temperatures to honor the late senator. “She showed the way.”

The memorial for Ms. Feinstein, who died on Sept. 29 at age 90, was by turns a celebration of her long and unwavering efforts around gun control and opposition to wartime torture, a deeply personal remembrance by her granddaughter, and a testament to her love of all things San Francisco.

The gold-domed City Hall proved an appropriate backdrop. It was where Ms. Feinstein, a Democrat and the Senate’s oldest member, once served as the first female president of the board of supervisors, before becoming mayor.

Vice President Kamala Harris, whose presence prompted the blocks all around City Hall to be closed, recalled that when she was sworn in as the junior senator from California in 2017, Ms. Feinstein, the senior senator, pulled her into a private hideaway off the Senate floor and handed her a glass of California chardonnay and a binder full of draft bills.

“Dianne, the women of America have come a long way,” Ms. Harris, the first woman to serve as vice president, told the gathered group, which included some 40 current and former members of the Senate and House. “Our country has come a long way. You helped move the ball forward, and our nation salutes you.”

As the afternoon wore on, the speakers were repeatedly interrupted by the roar of the Blue Angels — blue and yellow military jets that rattle nerves and windows every October for Fleet Week, an air show and parade of ships celebrating the U.S. Navy, which this year was dedicated to Ms. Feinstein.

The persistent jets were one more reminder that while Ms. Feinstein had served in the Senate for more than 30 years, her ties to her hometown remained deep.

Her death prompted tributes from the 49ers football team and the Giants baseball team. The day before her memorial, thousands of people lined up to pay their respects in front of her coffin, draped in an American flag, in the City Hall rotunda.

Her memorial on Thursday was dotted with San Francisco songs. Beforehand, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” by Tony Bennett played over the loudspeakers. And the service ended with the San Francisco Girls Chorus performing “San Francisco,” with its famous lines, “Open your golden gate, you’ll let nobody wait outside your door.” The former is the city’s official ballad, and the latter its official song.

Many San Franciscans learned only over the past week that they owed many of their city’s trademarks to Ms. Feinstein — including the cable cars, the historic streetcars, and Pier 39, the tourist waterfront spot. Turns out, she started the city’s Fleet Week and the Blue Angels appearances, too — back in 1981.

Ms. Feinstein steered San Francisco through some of its darkest times after the 1978 assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, events that propelled her into the mayor’s seat. She is credited with providing compassion and city dollars during the onset of the AIDS pandemic, which devastated the city’s gay community. She fought to preserve Lake Tahoe and created Joshua Tree National Park.

The tributes came from far beyond California. President Biden, who provided a military plane to fly Ms. Feinstein’s body home from Washington, recorded video remarks that were played at the service, calling his longtime colleague during his years in the Senate “a reminder that our democracy depends on the constitution of our character as people.”

Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader and the only man in elected office to speak at Ms. Feinstein’s service, recalled her for her grit. He remembered a day when she had hobbled around on an injured ankle to continue her work, and her no-nonsense response when he asked her how she had persisted: “I just did.”

Among those in attendance were some of the people who are hoping to assume Ms. Feinstein’s place in the Senate: Representatives Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee, both Democrats. Laphonza Butler, whom Gov. Gavin Newsom has tapped to complete Ms. Feinstein’s current Senate term, also attended. Representative Katie Porter, another Democrat who has entered the race for Senate, did not attend, according to Ms. Feinstein’s office.

Eileen Mariano, Ms. Feinstein’s granddaughter, remembered her grandmother outside of a political sphere — as someone who always backed her up, picked flowers with her and played chess with her.

“To me, she will be remembered as the most incredible grandmother,” said Ms. Mariano, who works as a policy adviser to Ms. Breed.

Ms. Mariano, 31, recalled sleepovers at Ms. Feinstein’s home in the Pacific Heights neighborhood, but also the crucial advice that her grandmother had left her with, pressing the value of hard work and doing something you love.

Her grandmother, she said, had urged her to find her life’s passion, to “earn your spurs” — and always, whatever trip you’re going on, “pack a black pantsuit.”

Emily Cochrane , Shawn Hubler and Colbi Edmonds contributed reporting.

Colbi Edmonds

Feinstein’s key to success, according to her granddaughter: A black pantsuit.

The president and vice president of the United States. Democratic leaders of the House and the Senate. Her boss, the mayor of San Francisco.

All of them spoke before Eileen Mariano took the stage on Thursday at the memorial service for her grandmother, Senator Dianne Feinstein. But it was left to Ms. Mariano, who followed Ms. Feinstein into public service and is now a policy adviser for Mayor London Breed, to give perhaps the most moving, heartfelt tribute to her grandmother’s legacy.

Ms. Feinstein will be remembered for saving cable cars in San Francisco, Ms. Mariano said, and leading the charge for a 1994 ban on assault weapons nationally, as well as her pivotal role in breaking barriers for women in politics.

But for Ms. Mariano, her legacy is far simpler: “To me, she will be remembered as the most incredible grandmother.”

Ms. Mariano lovingly recalled childhood memories with Ms. Feinstein, playing chess during sleepovers and picking flowers from the garden. They would end days together curled up on the couch, enjoying TV or movies. At bedtime, Ms. Mariano said, her grandmother would always sing “You Are My Sunshine.”

“She was an unwavering support system,” Ms. Mariano said. “She never failed to tell me how proud she was of me.”

Like many other women who followed the path that Ms. Feinstein blazed into politics, Ms. Mariano received important advice from her grandmother: Earn your spurs. Work hard. Do something to make the world a better place.

And, most critically: “Always pack a black pantsuit.”

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Emily Cochrane

California’s losses in Congress have weakened the state’s power in Washington.

For decades, California has reaped the benefits of its delegation’s flourishing power and seniority in Washington: millions of dollars in carefully targeted investment and aid, at least one voice in the room for the most sensitive negotiations and briefings.

With Senator Dianne Feinstein’s death, the state has abruptly lost the longest-serving female senator in history — and the plum positions of influence she had accumulated over that time.

The abrupt ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his office this week adds to an unexpectedly tenuous landscape in the short term for the state on Capitol Hill. The state delegation, the largest in Congress, still has multiple Democrats and Republicans in senior committee positions.

But for the first time in two decades, a California representative will not be the leader of at least one party in the House. (Both Mr. McCarthy and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who first became leader of her caucus in 2003 as minority leader, remain in the House.)

And seniority remains a driving force across Capitol Hill, even as a younger generation begins to climb the ranks. While Ms. Feinstein’s replacement, Senator Laphonza Butler, is already sworn in and seated in the upper chamber, it is not guaranteed that she will retain the same committee assignments on some of the Senate’s most powerful committees.

Ms. Feinstein, the first woman to chair the Senate Intelligence Committee and sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, had kept seats on both committees. She oversaw the branch of the Appropriations Committee that controlled energy and water spending, and lobbied for disaster aid and other resources for her state.

And while Ms. Feinstein, as her health waned in her final years in the Senate, often deferred to her staff, her office carried deep institutional knowledge that kept them involved in maintaining the senator’s role in renewing key policy initiatives like the Violence Against Women Act and earmarking funds for projects.

In two separate government funding packages in 2022, Ms. Feinstein’s office directed more than $600 million to California through the rebranded practice of community project funding. (Senator Alex Padilla, now the state’s senior senator at a comparatively young 50, racked up a similar tally of earmarked funds.)

Shawn Hubler

Feinstein rebuffed calls to step down as her health declined. Will it damage her legacy?

Over more than a half-century of public life, Senator Dianne Feinstein’s accomplishments rivaled those of anyone in the national arena: The 1994 assault weapons ban . The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the use of torture . Her trailblazing example as a woman in an overwhelmingly male-dominated political landscape.

But in the last two years of her life, the senator, who died last week at 90 , spent much of her time confronted with a single question: Why didn’t she retire before her health gave way?

Assailed by old age and grieving the death of her husband in 2022, Ms. Feinstein’s deterioration in office was a heartbreaking spectacle for those who had long been accustomed to her formal and detail-oriented approach to her duties.

She forgot things. She repeated herself in Senate hearings. For months last year, her absence from Washington because of complications from shingles stalled efforts by her fellow Democrats to advance nominees for federal judgeships.

When she returned, aides shuttled her around the Capitol in a wheelchair, avoiding encounters in which she might misspeak or appear senile. Critics called for her resignation, while defenders noted that no such complaints had been made about men in her position. Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, for example, could barely speak or hear by the time he retired at the age of 100.

“People don’t always understand when age has gotten the better of them,” said Scott Tillman, national field director for U.S. Term Limits, a Florida-based organization that supports caps on the tenure of officeholders. “For months, she was unable to serve her constituents. Her legacy will be tainted by that.”

Or perhaps not. In the week since her death, the focus — particularly in her home state of California — has appeared to shift largely back to her long career and list of achievements, rather than on how it ended.

“It’s a bit of a negative, but I don’t think it’s a big deal,” said Christian Grose, a political scientist at the University of Southern California and the director of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy. “Her ill health at the end is a coda on a long career.”

Mr. Grose said that Ms. Feinstein also left a legacy of civility, service, hard work and fairness. “She worked across the aisle to get things done,” he said. “There aren’t many people like that left in Congress.”

In California, she is a historic figure, said Jerry Roberts, who wrote a 1994 biography tracing Ms. Feinstein’s leadership of San Francisco through the turmoil of the 1970s and the AIDs epidemic.

“In the short term, people will talk,” Mr. Roberts said of the senator’s decline, “but it won’t be a significant factor in her record in the Senate or as mayor. She had a 60-year career, and when people look back in a couple of decades, that’s what they’ll see. Not what happened in the last couple of years.”

There are many ways that political funerals can strike a wrong note, but even with the occasional interruption from the Blue Angels, there were none at the memorial to Senator Feinstein. The event was a perfect reflection of the senator in her prime: inclusive, appropriate, warm, on point and San Franciscan through and through.

A glass of wine and a binder of bills: How Feinstein paved the way for women in power.

After Kamala Harris was sworn in as the junior senator from California in 2017, Senator Dianne Feinstein pulled her into a private hideaway off the Senate floor.

There, Vice President Harris recalled on Thursday, Ms. Feinstein handed her a glass of California chardonnay and a binder full of draft bills — the start of a partnership on behalf of their state.

“Dianne, the women of America have come a long way,” Ms. Harris said. “Our country has come a long way. You helped move the ball forward, and our nation salutes you, Dianne.”

There were very few women in the Senate when Ms. Feinstein arrived in 1992, and she made a point of welcoming those who came after her. She helped coordinate private group dinners, doled out gifts so frequently that one senator jokingly feared complimenting a purse or scarf and presented her colleagues with watercolor paintings of flowers.

At one point, she phoned some of the other women in the Senate to get their measurements, so she could buy seersucker suits for one of the classic sartorial Senate traditions in the summer. (At least one senator said she still owns that suit.)

Ms. Harris and other veterans of the Senate also described Ms. Feinstein’s rigor when it came to her legislative work on some of the chamber’s most powerful committees, including the Senate Intelligence Committee and Judiciary Committee.

“If there was the smallest bit of common ground, she’d pursue it if it meant moving an issue forward — even while being so far ahead of her time on gun safety, marriage equality, women’s rights, the environment and so many other issues,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader.

He added, “Dianne Feinstein was the living embodiment of what the Senate should always be — an institution built on cooperation.”

Mr. Schumer, the first Jewish person to serve as Senate majority leader, recalled how Ms. Feinstein made a point of bringing his daughter with her to High Holy Days services after she moved to San Francisco. And he credited her with ensuring that his daughters grew up in a world where more women were in positions of power.

“Because of Dianne, my daughters grew up in a world that’s a little bit fairer, a little more just and more accepting of women in leadership,” he said.

“San Francisco, open your Golden Gate,” the San Francisco Girls Chorus sang in a moving finale, evoking the city the late senator led and loved. Mayor London Breed, one in a succession of speakers who said they were inspired by Senator Feinstein, closed the 90-minute program.

Eileen Mariano said San Francisco, California and the nation would remember Dianne Feinstein's contributions, from saving the cable cars to preserving Joshua Tree to shattering glass ceilings. But to her, she said, she was an “incredible” grandma, who would sing her to sleep with “You Are My Sunshine.” When she was born, Ms. Mariano said, her grandmother famously exclaimed: “Oh wow, she looks just like me! You should change her name to Dianne!”

Tearing up, she said her grandmother advised her to “work to your long suit,” “earn your spurs,” to keep trying no matter the setbacks and to “always pack a black pants suit.”

Eileen Mariano followed her grandmother into public service.

“There are few women who can be called senator, chairman, mayor, wife, mom and grandmother,” Dianne Feinstein’s office said last week in a statement marking her death. Not included on the list of titles was “Gagi,” the name that Eileen Mariano called the senator, her grandmother, as a child.

Ms. Mariano, 31, was born less than two months before her grandmother became the first woman to be sworn in as a U.S. senator from California. As a newborn, Ms. Mariano appeared in a campaign ad, in Ms. Feinstein’s arms.

Ms. Mariano, now a policy adviser for Mayor London Breed of San Francisco, went on to graduate from Stanford, her grandmother’s alma mater, and earn a master’s degree in public health from Harvard.

When she was 6, they collaborated on a children’s book with the author Lisa Tucker McElroy. Published by Millbrook Press for a series called “Grandmothers at Work,” the book — “ Meet My Grandmother: She’s a United States Senator ” — took readers around San Francisco as Senator Feinstein visited with her granddaughter.

The book was interspersed with photographs of Ms. Mariano and Ms. Feinstein in Golden Gate Park and at the top of Lombard Street, their hair wind-whipped, their hometown laid out like a toy town under a cloudless sky behind them.

“The only bad thing about Gagi’s election was that Gagi had to move to Washington, D.C., which is all the way across the country,” the book reads. “I miss her because she lives so far away, but she comes home a lot when the Senate is in recess — that’s what they call it when the Senate goes on a break.”

The word “friend” gets thrown around a lot on Capitol Hill, but there is no questioning that Pelosi and Feinstein were true friends.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledges the members of Congress who traveled to California to pay their respects — a group that includes two candidates vying for Senator Feinstein’s seat, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee.

Feinstein was “a trailblazing model and a mentor of generosity and sweetness,” Pelosi said, as she underscored how many people have continued to celebrate and honor the senator since her passing.

Pelosi and Feinstein, political titans of California, were also friends and neighbors.

They were political titans of California — two pioneering women who ascended to the highest levels of power and steered millions of dollars and critical policy overhauls into law for their state and their home city.

But beyond that, Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein were longtime friends and neighbors in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood who forged a bond over decades of political and personal camaraderie.

“We used to always say, if Dianne and I ran against each other, my daughter Nancy would probably vote for Dianne,” Ms. Pelosi said on Sunday, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “That was the love that existed. But love is a good word for her.”

Ms. Pelosi and Ms. Feinstein arrived on Capitol Hill just a few years apart, after special elections for their respective seats in the House and Senate in 1987 and 1992. Ms. Pelosi, the first and only woman to serve as speaker of the House, and Ms. Feinstein, the first woman elected to represent California in the Senate, would break barrier after barrier in Congress.

“Over the years — especially when I was serving as speaker of the House — she would say to me in a loving and sisterly way: ‘You don’t always have to be the one on the attack, you know. Other people can help with that,’” Ms. Pelosi recounted in an opinion piece published Thursday in the San Francisco Chronicle.

After Ms. Feinstein was hospitalized for shingles , Ms. Pelosi’s eldest daughter, Nancy, stayed by her side for much of her recovery . And it was Ms. Pelosi who flew back to California with Ms. Feinstein’s coffin on a military plane, offering a final escort on her way home.

On the flight, Ms. Pelosi, who is Catholic, reminisced with Ms. Feinstein’s daughter, Katherine, about a visit the senator, who was Jewish, had made to her Catholic high school.

“She was beautiful, articulate, dignified and strong,” Ms. Pelosi wrote in her opinion piece. “Vintage Dianne Feinstein: the iconic, indomitable leader.”

Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, said he was “dazzled” by Senator Feinstein when he worked with her on the 1994 assault weapons ban, which he said “turned a new leaf” for gun safety. “Her integrity made her sparkle like a diamond in the Senate,” he said.

Schumer and Feinstein wielded the Democratic power in the Senate.

After Senator Dianne Feinstein, in her first year on Capitol Hill, championed legislation that would effectively ban assault weapons for a decade, it was Chuck Schumer, then a representative from New York, who helped push the measure through the House.

Decades later, they wielded Democratic power in the Senate. Mr. Schumer headed the caucus, and Ms. Feinstein held senior positions on some of the chamber’s most powerful committees overseeing judicial appointments and national security.

“Her integrity was a diamond,” Mr. Schumer said in a tribute last week on the Senate floor. “Her integrity shone like a beacon across the Senate and across the country for all to see and hopefully emulate.”

He recalled Ms. Feinstein’s studious nature ahead of votes. She refused to offer a position before taking the time to read up on the policy and politics at hand, he said.

“‘Let me go home and read on it,’ and when she came back, if she believed the cause or the vote was right — and vital to many issues she cared about — she not only voted for it, there was no stopping her from getting it done,” Mr. Schumer said. He added: “That was Dianne. Powerful. Prepared. Unflappable. She had to be: Whenever she did something, she was often the first to do it.”

Ms. Feinstein conferred frequently with him as they ascended the ranks, and Mr. Schumer was one of the few people from Washington she spoke with as she recovered from shingles. And as pressure mounted for Ms. Feinstein to step aside amid concerns about her memory and ability to serve in recent years, he took great care not to publicly intervene.

Vice President Kamala Harris is now speaking, reflecting on the shared time the two women spent in San Francisco and the Senate. She references Feinstein’s generosity and watercolor painting — Harris’s former colleagues in the Senate have spoken about the paintings she gave them and the unexpected gifts she would shower them with.

“Dianne commanded respect and she gave respect,” Harris says. “She was a serious and gracious person who welcomed debate and discussion but always required that it would be well informed and studied.”

Feinstein and Harris were a generation apart but united in their service to California.

As senators from California, Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein were a generation apart.

But in their four years together on Capitol Hill, they collaborated frequently, on behalf of their state and in classified briefings and public hearings from the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“For years, I witnessed Senator Feinstein’s leadership, when the cameras were on and when they were off,” Ms. Harris said in a statement, adding that it was Ms. Feinstein who swore her in for another term as district attorney of San Francisco in 2008.

While Ms. Feinstein backed President Biden, her longtime friend, in his bid for the Democratic nomination over Ms. Harris, she supported them both as they entered the White House and began pushing through an ambitious legislative agenda.

“Senator Feinstein and I shared a fundamental belief in the importance of strong American leadership,” Ms. Harris said in a statement. “And I saw firsthand how she worked courageously to ensure that our leadership was guided by our nation’s values.”

President Biden recorded an address for the service, where he is reflecting on the years the two worked together in the Senate. As senators — and when Mr. Biden became president — the two worked together to toughen gun laws, a monumental piece of Senator Feinstein’s legacy.

Biden mourned the loss of “a kind and loyal friend.” Her life, he said, was “a reminder that our democracy depends on the constitution of our character as a people.” He added, “She was something else.”

President Biden was an early ally of Feinstein’s in the Senate.

When Joseph R. Biden Jr. was chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, he recruited a new colleague to join their ranks: Dianne Feinstein, the first woman to sit on the committee.

Together, they worked closely to shepherd through legislation that effectively banned assault weapons for a decade, as well as the landmark Violence Against Women Act, a law aimed at preventing sexual assault, domestic abuse and stalking.

They served together in the Senate for more than 16 years, before Mr. Biden became vice president. And Ms. Feinstein was an early backer of his presidential campaign in 2019.

“I knew what she was made of, and I wanted her on our team,” Mr. Biden said in a statement. “There’s no better example of her skillful legislating and sheer force of will than when she turned passion into purpose, and led the fight to ban assault weapons.”

He added that Ms. Feinstein was “tough, sharp, always prepared, and never pulled a punch, but she was also a kind and loyal friend, and that’s what Jill and I will miss the most.”

Mayor London Breed said she first met Dianne Feinstein at 13 years old, when Breed was a french horn player for her middle school’s band. For important events, Feinstein chose the band to perform, and Breed said her impact stayed with her into adulthood.“Millions of girls my age and long after me have grown blissfully free of the yokes our grandmothers wore because Dianne Feinstein wrestled them off,” she said. “She showed the way.”

Reporting from Sacramento

London Breed, the second woman to serve as mayor of San Francisco, will honor its first.

London Breed became San Francisco’s second female mayor in the same way that Senator Dianne Feinstein became its first: through tragedy.

In Ms. Feinstein’s case, it was a political assassination. While she was serving as president of the city’s Board of Supervisors in 1978, one of her colleagues shot and killed Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. That rocketed Ms. Feinstein, who was mulling leaving politics altogether, into the mayor’s seat and later the U.S. Senate.

Ms. Breed got the job when Mayor Ed Lee died of a heart attack in 2017. One of the first people to call her and offer support and advice: Senator Feinstein.

So on Thursday, the second woman to serve as mayor of San Francisco will eulogize the first .

“You can’t talk about San Francisco without talking about Dianne Feinstein,” Ms. Breed told reporters last Friday after learning that Ms. Feinstein had died at her home in Washington.

Ms. Breed said that Ms. Feinstein had not only helped steer her through the difficult days after Mr. Lee’s death, but also phoned regularly when she spotted trash on the street, potholes or uneven sidewalks. She also called in recent months to talk about the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, which is set to draw world leaders including President Biden to San Francisco in November.

“Dianne never stopped being mayor,” Ms. Breed said.

Feinstein’s lasting legacy was inspiring generations of women.

For generations of women in California and beyond, Dianne Feinstein’s most lasting legacy was that she had amassed several lifetimes’ worth of accomplishments in a world long dominated by men.

“She inspired women like me to leadership,” said Eleni Kounalakis, 57, the lieutenant governor of California who is among the leading contenders for the state’s top job in 2026. “Dianne broke marble ceilings for the rest of us.”

Outwardly formal in her public life and inwardly armed with a fierce work ethic, Ms. Feinstein showed that it was acceptable not only for a woman to wield political power, but also to want it, and to keep working to win it, even after repeated setbacks.

She endured bare-knuckle politics in San Francisco, twice losing bids to become its first woman to serve as mayor until she took control of the city when Mayor George Moscone was killed at City Hall in a double assassination. Later, she lost her race to become California’s first female governor but quickly pivoted to the Senate, where she and Barbara Boxer made history when they became the first two women to represent the state.

In 1991, the year before Ms. Feinstein was elected, only two women were serving in the 100-member Senate. On Sept. 28, when she cast her last vote, there were 25.

“Her remarkable life in politics was a message to other women about the possibilities of public life,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

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Feinstein returning to Senate after facing resignation calls

FILE - Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., walks through a Senate corridor at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 14, 2023. Feinstein is returning to Washington after a more than two month absence led to calls from within her own party for the oldest member of Congress to resign. The California Democrat announced in early March that she had been hospitalized in San Francisco and was being treated for a case of shingles. The 89-year-old senator planned to be back in Washington in March but never appeared as her recovery took longer than expected. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office disclosed Tuesday that she is returning to Washington following an absence of more than two months in which the oldest member of Congress faced calls from within her own party to resign.

The 89-year-old California Democrat announced in early March that she had been hospitalized in San Francisco and was being treated for a case of shingles . But an expected return later that month never happened.

Few details emerged on Feinstein’s condition, and some Democrats openly complained that her lengthy absence was compromising the Democratic agenda in the Senate, including slowing the push to confirm President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees . Some in the House urged her to step down.

Earlier this month, Feinstein said in a statement that “there has been no slowdown.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer confirmed Feinstein’s return in a statement and said he was pleased “my friend Dianne is back in the Senate and ready to roll up her sleeves and get to work.”

Feinstein’s office said she was traveling and expected to be in Washington Tuesday evening. It wasn’t immediately clear when she would appear in the Senate for evening votes.

Feinstein, who took office in 1992, announced earlier this year she would not seek reelection in 2024. The senator has faced questions in recent years about her cognitive health and memory and has appeared increasingly frail, though she has defended her effectiveness.

Last month, facing pressure over her extended absence, Feinstein made the unusual request to be temporarily replaced on the Judiciary Committee. At the time, she said her recovery had been delayed because of complications and provided no date for her return. Republicans in the closely divided chamber rejected the request, saying Democrats only wanted a stand-in to push through Biden’s most partisan judicial nominations.

California Rep. Ro Khanna, a progressive, was the first to call for Feinstein to resign, saying in mid-April: “This is a moment of crisis for women’s rights and voting rights. It’s unacceptable to have Sen. Feinstein miss vote after vote to confirm judges who will uphold reproductive rights.”

The politically moderate Feinstein has long had strained relations with the Democratic Party’s left wing. A handful of other progressives have also called for her resignation.

But leading national Democrats remained largely silent about her absence. The White House has expressed support for the long-serving senator and wished her a speedy recovery.

Given her age and health problems, Feinstein is likely to face continued questions about her ability to serve.

If Feinstein decides to step down during her term, it would be up to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to fill the vacancy, potentially reordering the highly competitive race to succeed her. Newsom said in 2021 that he would nominate a Black woman to fill the seat if Feinstein were to step aside.

The leading candidates include Democratic U.S. Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff.

Lee is Black, and becoming the incumbent could be a decisive advantage in the contest, but it’s not known if Newsom would consider Lee, given that she is already running for the seat. Porter and Schiff are white.

Feinstein has had a groundbreaking political career and shattered gender barriers from San Francisco’s City Hall to the corridors of Capitol Hill.

She was the first woman to serve as president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the 1970s and the first female mayor of San Francisco. She ascended to that post after the November 1978 assassinations of then-Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk by a former supervisor, Dan White. Feinstein found Milk’s body.

In the Senate, she was the first woman to head the Senate Intelligence Committee and the first woman to serve as the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat. She gained a reputation as a pragmatic centrist who left a mark on political battles over issues ranging from reproductive rights to environmental protection.

• The D.C. Brief

Why Dianne Feinstein Shouldn’t Quit

This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox.

The news of ailing Senator Dianne Feinstein’s return to Washington this week crackled through Capitol Hill aides’ messaging apps, journalists’ note-trading clouds, and donors’ inboxes. The oldest member of the Senate had come back to work after almost three months away, recovering from illnessesses that weren’t entirely disclosed during her absence, and she looked markedly older than when she had left. The senior Senator from California was back, but was she really ?

There’s nothing Washington likes better than second-guessing, and the Feinstein situation was no different. The 89-year-old icon has made clear, at least for the moment, that she would ignore the merciless drumbeat of calls for her to cede the seat immediately to someone who can discharge the duties more consistently.

As The D.C. Brief wrote last week, Feinstein is giving a masterclass in how to mangle a legacy in what could be its final chapter. And yet, that verdict—along with dozens of others like it emerging from D.C. and around the country in recent days—may have missed the point.

Here’s an updated take that will undoubtedly draw some objections: Feinstein holding the seat until the election next year may be the most responsible thing she can do in case of one possible, albeit unlikely, scenario: a vacancy on the Supreme Court. In indulging her stubbornness, her ego, her paranoia—whatever we want to call it—Feinstein may be what stands between a 6-to-3 conservative Supreme Court majority tilting to a 7-to-2 position, or the key to it shifting back to 5-4. Either of those outcomes would be one liberals may regret not having taken more seriously.

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The reason why Feinstein holds all this power is tied to her seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Democrats have an 11-to-10 advantage over Republicans on the panel, giving them zero margin for error in advancing President Joe Biden’s nominees for lifetime appointments to federal courts, including the Supreme Court. A tied 10-to-10 vote, at least under the current rules, leaves those nominees potentially stuck in limbo. Whenever she’s absent, Feinstein leaves Democrats on the committee with an insufficient 10 votes.

So one might argue that all that is more reason for Feinstein to resign, and let a younger, healthier Democrat take over her spot on the committee. But that’s not what would be guaranteed to happen. Even if Feinstein were to leave her seat early, allowing California Gov. Gavin Newsom to appoint an interim lawmaker until after the 2024 election, there is nothing ensuring that that successor could be the 11th vote on Judiciary. Committee assignments are part of the start of every Congress, and changes are subject to 60 votes if some lawmakers object and demand a recorded vote. That means 10 Republicans would have to allow Democrats to either send Feinstein’s replacement or another lawmaker into that role. There is scant evidence that Republicans would accede to that request.

Need proof? In April, the Senate considered Feinstein’s request that she be allowed to step away from Judiciary for a beat, and to allow another Democrat to take her seat. The effort , clearly heading to defeat, wasn’t even put to a floor vote . Even in a body known for its cordiality across party lines, Republicans saw the ability to confirm nominees to lifetime gigs in robes and wielding gavels as more important than courtesy to an ailing colleague. “We’re not going to help the Democrats with that,” Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said .

Fellow Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah was even more transparent about his party’s intentions: “I don’t think Republicans are going to lift a finger in any way to get more liberal judges appointed, so whether she’s resigned or leaves temporarily from the Judiciary Committee, I think we will slow walk any process that makes it easier to appoint more liberal judges,” he said .

Bad juju? Arguably. Good politics? Probably, especially if you’re a partisan wearing a red jersey.

By an objective measure, Feinstein’s best days are behind her. She made a name for herself as a fierce advocate for her ideals, an independent mind who famously defied the intelligence agencies and a President from her party. Yet Feinstein has been coasting on her reputation for some time. Even her biggest defenders will acknowledge she has missed a beat, and her friends—especially her female ones, to whom she has been a role model and mentor—have found her brushback frustrating. Her ability to effectively advocate for the state of California is questionable.

Feinstein’s choice is hers alone. While the 25th Amendment provides a mechanism from removing an unfit President—a process considered by Donald Trump’s own Cabinet after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection—there is nothing that provides for the ousting of a sitting Senator for incapacitation. Of the 15 Senators in history to be booted from their gigs, 14 of them were Confederate supporters and the final one was for treason. The last time Senators even considered such moves was in 1995, and Sen. Bob Packwood resigned in the face of abuse of power and sexual misconduct allegations. (He later found redemption as a high-powered lobbyist.)

For more than a year, the rumble about Feinstein’s age and fitness in the job has been growing . When she was hospitalized in February for shingles, Democrats accepted that they were in a holding pattern until Feinstein could recover and resume her unapologetic pursuit of an agenda she sees as righteous.

But Feinstein, outwardly, hasn’t seemed to recover. Her return came via wheelchair, her face frozen, and her mind seemingly distracted. It has now come out that her shingles has spread to her face and neck, leaving her vision and balance impaired. Her face is, for now, paralyzed. Swelling in her brain brought on by post-shingles encephalitis could lead to difficulties walking, talking, remembering, or sleeping.

When she met with reporters on Tuesday, after casting a vote while standing on her own, she appeared—at best— confused . When a reporter asked how she was being welcomed back by colleagues, she said she had never been away. “No, I haven’t been gone,” she said. “You should follow the—I haven’t been gone. I’ve been working,” she continued. So working from home, then? “No, I’ve been here. I’ve been voting,” she said. “Please. You either know or don’t know.”

Clearly, this is not serving Feinstein’s legacy well, at least not at the moment. But there is an argument—a cynical, craven, dark one, to be fair—that can be made that Feinstein is playing the long game. Should an opening on the Supreme Court come to pass, a Feinstein-free Senate may not be able to do anything until 2025. That could push that decision beyond Biden’s reach and potentially into the hands of a Republican President should Biden lose his re-election bid. (Remember: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell held up Barack Obama’s pick for the high court, Merrick Garland, for 293 days.) The 2024 Senate map is about as hostile for Democratic incumbents as we’ve seen in some time, meaning their continued control of the chamber is far from assured, too.

To be clear, no one expects a Supreme Court retirement is imminent. The three Democratic-nominated Justices range from ages 52 to 68, and the six Republican-tapped ones—ages 51 to 74—are expected to stay in office until they can have a GOP President to nominate their successor. The Supreme Court’s average age right now is 62 years old, but the unexpected is what roils Washington.

So it comes down to whether Democrats can quiet their churn about a less-than-lion Feinstein in the seat in case they can get a high court pick and Republicans hold the line, or whether they sabotage themselves in pursuit of doing what they see as the right thing. The record here should give Democrats little reason to show swagger.

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Senator Dianne Feinstein’s key accomplishments

Protecting Marriage Equality, 2022 :   Senator Feinstein authored the Senate version of the  Respect for Marriage Act  (Public Law 117-228), a bill to repeal the discriminatory  Defense of Marriage Act , enshrine marriage equality in federal law and provide additional legal protections for marriage equality. The bill passed both chambers of Congress in November 2022 and was  signed into law by President Biden  on December 13, 2022.

Ensuring safety of personal care products, 2022:  Major provisions from Senator Feinstein’s bill, the   Personal Care Products Safety Act , were included in the fiscal year 2023 federal spending bill. These provisions updated safety regulations for personal care products for the first time in more than 80 years, bolstering the Food and Drug Administration’s authority to ensure the safety of these products and for the first time providing the authority to recall dangerous products.

Reauthorizing the  Violence Against Women Act , 2022 : Senator Feinstein led introduction of the  Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act  (Signed into law March 2022, Public Law No: 117-103), which funds initiatives to help protect women from domestic violence and sexual assault. The legislation reauthorized VAWA through 2027, preserving advancements made in previous reauthorizations and included a number of additional improvements to the current law.

Ensuring fair pay for federal wildland firefighters, 2022:  As part of the bipartisan infrastructure law, Senator Feinstein secured $600 million to provide pay raises of up to $20,000 per year for federal wildland firefighters, bringing their pay in line with state and other firefighters, and create a new occupational series for wildland firefighters. Senator Feinstein led several letters  urging the swift implementation  of these provisions, and in June, both the pay supplement and new occupational series were implemented. The pay raise was retroactive for all wildland firefighters to October 2021. In addition, Senator Feinstein led efforts in the Senate to  secure a 14 percent increase for the U.S. Forest Service firefighter salary  line item in the fiscal year 2023 federal budget to support a permanent pay raise for firefighters.

Support for homeless veterans in the Los Angeles area, 2021:  Senator Feinstein worked with Representative Ted Lieu to secure enactment of the  West LA VA Campus Improvement Act  (Signed into law June 2021, Public Law No: 117-18) . The legislation authorizes the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to use funds generated through land use-agreements at the West LA VA campus for the development of supportive housing and services.

Protecting California’s desert wilderness, 2019:  Senator Feinstein authored and secured passage of the  California Desert Conservation and Recreation Act , which protects more than 375,000 acres of wilderness, expands desert national parks by almost 40,000 acres, designates 200,000 acres of off-highway vehicle areas and designates 77 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers. The bill is the final step in a process that began with the first  California Desert Protection Act  in 1994.

Fighting for military housing reform, 2019:  Senator Feinstein secured provisions from her  Ensuring Safe Housing for our Military Act  in the annual defense authorization bill. The provisions will create stronger oversight mechanisms, allow the military to withhold payments to contractors until issues are resolved and prohibit contractors from charging certain fees. It will also require the military to withhold incentive fees from poorly performing contractors.

Safeguarding Young Athletes from Sexual Predators, 2018:  In response to the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal, Senator Feinstein in March 2017 introduced legislation requiring amateur athletics governing bodies to report sex-abuse allegations to law enforcement or a child-welfare agency within 24 hours. The law also makes it simpler for victims to report abuse and mandates oversight to ensure strong sexual-abuse prevention policies are implemented. The bill was signed into law in February 2018.

Protecting Religious Affiliated Institutions Act, 2018:  In response to a string of bomb threats against Jewish Community Centers and other religiously-affiliated institutions, Senators Feinstein and Orrin Hatch drafted legislation to update the  Church Arson Prevent Action . While it was already a federal crime to damage religious property, this bill makes clear that threats to religiously-affiliated institutions’ property is also a federal crime. This bill was signed into law in September 2018.

Confronting the Opioid Epidemic, 2018:  To address the staggering number of drug and opioid overdose deaths ravaging this country, Senator Feinstein authored a number of key provisions that were included in the comprehensive, bipartisan opioid package, known as the  SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act . This bill holds drug manufacturers and distributors accountable for failure to report suspicious orders of opioids and reauthorizes critical substance abuse prevention, treatment, and enforcement programs that directly benefit California, including the Drug Free Communities, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas and drug court programs.

Preventing Foreign Powers from Acquiring Sensitive U.S. Technology, 2018:  Senator Feinstein was the lead Democratic cosponsor of a bipartisan bill with Senator Cornyn to modernize and strengthen how the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States reviews acquisitions, mergers and other foreign investments for national security risks. The law updates tools to prevent foreign efforts from acquiring sensitive U.S. technology. The bill was signed into law as part of the  National Defense Authorization Act  in August 2018.

Fighting Against Sex Trafficking, 2017:  The Senate unanimously passed a bill drafted by Senators Feinstein and Grassley to help combat human trafficking. The  Trafficking Victims Protection Act  renews existing programs that make federal resources available to human trafficking survivors and establish new prevention, prosecution and collaboration initiatives to help bring the perpetrators to justice.

Protecting the California Desert, 2016:  President Obama, drawing from a bill introduced by Senator Feinstein, designated three new national monuments spanning 1.8 million acres of California desert: the Mojave Trails National Monument, the Sand to Snow National Monument and Castle Mountains National Monument.

Countering the California Drought, 2016:  Senator Feinstein secured passage of bipartisan legislation to respond to California’s five-year drought and modernize the state’s water system. In addition to short-term operational provisions, the bill also authorized $558 million in funds to assist the state in building a new water infrastructure including desalination, recycling and storage projects. Senator Feinstein has ensured full appropriation of this $558 million to help California weather future droughts.

Restoring Lake Tahoe, 2016:  Senator Feinstein helped secure passage of the  Lake Tahoe Restoration Act , a bill that   authorized $415 million for aquatic invasive species control, storm water management, environmental restoration projects and fire risk reduction.

Restoring the West LA VA Campus, 2016:  After decades of mismanagement at the West Los Angeles VA Campus, Senator Feinstein led an effort to halt these abusive practices and restore the campus to its intended purpose: service to veterans. In 2016, Congress passed the  West Los Angeles Leasing Act , a law written by Senator Feinstein. This law requires that leases and land sharing agreements on the campus principally benefit veterans and their families. In addition to securing the passage of this law, Senator Feinstein has also worked to implement the Master Plan, which requires the development of 1,200 units of permanent supportive housing for homeless veterans.

Combatting Drug Trafficking, 2016:  Senator Feinstein authored the  Transnational Drug Trafficking Act , which was enacted in 2016. This bill allows for the prosecution of drug traffickers if there is a “reasonable cause to believe” that the drugs they are shipping will be trafficked into the United States. It also imposes penalties on individuals who manufacture or distribute precursor chemicals knowing that the chemicals will be used to make illicit drugs destined for the United States.

Banning Torture, 2015:  Legislation drafted by Senator Feinstein and Senator John McCain to prevent torture of detainees in U.S. custody was signed into law. The amendment restricts interrogation techniques to those authorized in the Army Field Manual and requires access for the International Committee of the Red Cross to detainees in U.S. government custody.

Cybersecurity Information Sharing, 2015:  Senator Feinstein worked with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr to secure passage of the first major cybersecurity bill, which promotes information sharing between companies and between companies and the government. The bill included strict privacy safeguards as well as liability protections.

Strengthening the Visa Waiver Program, 2015:  Provisions from a bill drafted by Senator Feinstein to strengthen the security of the Visa Waiver Program were signed into law. These provisions require individuals who have traveled to high-risk countries to go through the traditional visa process rather than the visa waiver program. The provisions also require the use of electronic passports and improved information-sharing between the United States and participating countries.

Combating Human Trafficking, 2015:  Provisions from a bill drafted by Senator Feinstein and Senator Rob Portman to reduce the demand for human trafficking were included in the  Justice for Victims of Human Trafficking Act . Those provisions increase penalties for buyers of sex acts from trafficking victims, expand reporting on trafficking prosecutions, require training on targeting and prosecuting buyers, expand wiretapping authority to cover all human trafficking offenses and strengthen crime victims’ rights.

Bipartisan Benghazi Report, 2014:  Following the tragic attacks against U.S. diplomatic and CIA facilities in Benghazi, the Senate Intelligence Committee conducted a bipartisan investigation. The resulting report found that the attacks were preventable based on security vulnerabilities and a known terrorist threat. The report made 18 recommendations to increase security at U.S. facilities abroad.

Strengthening Food Safety, 2015:  The Department of Agriculture acted on calls from Senator Feinstein to finalize strong new pathogen standards for Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry parts to protect consumers from foodborne illness.

Report on CIA Torture, 2014:  Senator Feinstein oversaw a six-year review of the CIA’s detention and interrogation program, culminating in the December 2014 release of the report’s executive summary and subsequent anti-torture legislation.

Anti-Meth Program, 2014:  Senator Feinstein established the   COPS   Anti-Meth Program that directs federal funding to states with high seizures of precursor chemicals, finished meth labs and lab dump seizures. Since 2014, approximately $23 million has been appropriated to this program, with $5 million going to California.

Enhancing Safety of Underground Pipelines, 2012:  The  Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty and Job Creation Act  was signed into law to address safety concerns about the 2.5 million miles of oil, natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines in the United States. The bill reflected many of the safety, inspection and enforcement provisions included in an earlier bill introduced by Senators Feinstein and Boxer in the wake of the tragic 2010 natural gas explosion in San Bruno, Calif.

Increasing Fuel Efficiency, 2012:  Using a 2007 law spearheaded by Senator Feinstein, the Obama administration increased fleetwide fuel efficiency to 54.5 miles per gallon for cars and light trucks by 2025.

Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 2007:  Senator Feinstein authored legislation that was signed into law in 2007 to require the Environmental Protection Agency to issue a rule mandating all major sources of greenhouse gases to report their emissions every year.

Combating Methamphetamine, 2010 and 2006:  In 2010, a bill authored by Senator Feinstein was signed into law to require all regulated sellers of certain listed chemicals used to make methamphetamine to submit self-certifications of compliance to the attorney general. In 2006, a bill authored by Senators Feinstein and Jim Talent was signed into law to restrict the sale of products necessary to cook methamphetamine. The bill also authorized funds for enforcement, training and research into meth treatment.

Banning Phthalates in Children’s Toys, 2009:  Senator Feinstein authored legislation to impose a nationwide ban on phthalates in products designed for children’s use, modeled after the California and EU bans.

Protecting unaccompanied immigrant children, 2008:  Senators Feinstein and Sam Brownback passed legislation to guarantee basic humanitarian protections to unaccompanied immigrant children who arrive at the U.S. border alone.

Cracking Down on Rogue Internet Pharmacies, 2008:  Senators Feinstein and Jeff Session succeeded in passing a bill to crack down on rogue Internet pharmacies that sell controlled substances without a valid prescription.

Closing the Enron Loophole, 2008:  Senators Feinstein, Levin and Snowe authored legislation to close the so-called “Enron Loophole” and establish federal oversight of our nation’s electronic energy markets. The law prevents manipulation, excessive speculation and fraud in electronic energy futures markets, which had operated without regulation since 2000.

Increasing Fuel Efficiency, 2007:  A bill authored by Senators Feinstein, Snowe, Inouye and Stevens was signed into law to increase average fuel economy standards for America’s fleet of vehicles by at least 10 miles per gallon over 10 years by 2020, the largest increase in fuel efficiency in more than two decades.

Criminalizing Border Tunnels, 2006:  Senators Feinstein and Kyl succeeded in passing the first federal law to criminalize the construction or financing of tunnels or subterranean passages across an international border into the United States.

Preserving Pristine Land, 2006 and 2005:  In 2006, Feinstein legislation permanently protected almost 300,000 acres and preserves over 21 miles of the Black Butte River in Northern California. In 2005, Senator Feinstein secured passage of a bill added 4,500 acres of pristine natural land to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and 25,500 acres to the Redwood National Park in Del Norte County.

Strengthening California’s Drought Resiliency, 2004:  Senator Feinstein and Congressman Ken Calvert worked together to enact bipartisan legislation to increase federal funding for storage, water recycling and other projects to improve California’s water supply.

San Francisco Salt Ponds, 2003:  Senator Feinstein helped negotiate the purchase of 16,500 acres of salt ponds along the San Francisco Bay, the largest wetlands restoration project in California history. Little more than a decade after the agreement was reached, endangered species were already returning to the wetlands and winter bird populations had doubled from 100,000 to 200,000.

Preventing Catastrophic Wildfires, 2003:  Senators Feinstein and Ron Wyden were the lead Democratic sponsors of legislation enacted to expedite forest thinning projects to prevent catastrophic wildfires.  

National AMBER Alert Network Act, 2003:  Senators Feinstein and Hutchinson spurred President Bush to issue an Executive Order that resulted in the creation of the nationwide AMBER Alert communications network to help law enforcement find abducted children..

Blocking Telemarketers, 2003:  Senators Feinstein and Ensign passed a bill authorizing the Federal Trade Commission to establish a national “Do Not Call” telemarketing registry.

Lake Tahoe Restoration Act, 2000:  Senator Feinstein’s bill authorized $300 million to help preserve and restore Lake Tahoe and reverse the environmental emergency threatening the future of the lake and forest. Senator Feinstein is working on updated legislation to build on the momentum of the original bill.

Adding to Golden Gate National Recreation Area, 2000:  A bill drafted by Senator Feinstein added nearly 1,300 acres of undeveloped land in Pacifica, Marin County and San Francisco to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Preserving Otay Mountain Wilderness, 1999:  A bill written by Senator Feinstein preserved 18,500 acres of the Otay Mountain region. The mountain area, located in eastern San Diego County, is home to 20 sensitive plant and animal species.

Headwaters Forest, 1999:  Senator Feinstein negotiated an agreement with Maxxam Corp. to protect the 2,800-acre Headwaters Grove and other old-growth redwood groves that otherwise would have been destroyed. The agreement secured $250 million in federal funds (a match for state funding) to purchase the 7,500 acre Headwaters Forest, the largest privately held stand of uncut old-growth redwoods. The agreement also helped preserve 12 additional groves of ancient redwood trees.

Breast Cancer Research Stamp, 1997:  Senator Feinstein worked with Senators D’Amato and Faircloth to authorize the Breast Cancer Research Stamp, a semipostal that helps fund research programs. The creation and continued reauthorization of this stamp has raised more than $86 million for breast cancer research.

Assault Weapons Ban, 1994:  Senator Feinstein won passage of a landmark 10-year ban on the manufacture and sale of military-style assault weapons, including UZIs and AK-47s. The bill also banned copycat versions of the banned weapons, any weapon with a combination of specific “assault” features and ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.

California Desert Protection Act, 1994:  The enactment of Senator Feinstein’s bill protected more than 7 million acres of pristine California desert and established the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks and the East Mojave Natural Preserve.

Source: Senator Feinstein’s  official website

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Replacing Feinstein can be complicated, Senate history shows

There is precedent for blocking a senator from being allowed to resign. Riddick’s Senate Procedure cites a 1946 case in which a request from Sen. Wayne Morse, D-Ore., to resign from a committee that was “left in abeyance” after the request to resign by unanimous consent faced an objection.

There are also earlier cases when such requests were declined by the Senate, including in March of 1891. Sen. John Tyler Morgan, an Alabama Democrat who had been a Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader, sought to resign from the Foreign Relations Committee.

After a brief debate, Sen. John C. Spooner, R-Wis., said, “I believe it is the unanimous judgment of the Senate without regard to party that the withdrawal of that Senator from service upon that committee would be a serious public loss. His service there has been broadminded, fearless, able, lofty, and patriotic.”

The Senate, in 1891, decided by voice vote to decline Morgan’s effort to leave the committee.

Even a Feinstein resignation from the Senate itself would not necessarily resolve the committee assignment issue, since the measure to seat a successor appointed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom would also be debatable.

Aidan Quigley contributed to this report.

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How the GOP is making Dianne Feinstein’s retirement more likely

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has been a member of the Senate for more than 30 years. As of Thursday, however, she has been missing from the chamber for roughly six weeks after a shingles diagnosis. With no timeline for her return, her absence has made Senate Democrats’ already-slim majority even tighter , particularly on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Without her vote, more than a dozen nominees for the federal bench had been stuck in the queue, before seven appointments managed to squeak through Thursday with modest Republican support.

But Democrats are struggling to find a solution for the other nominees, and there is zero chance of subpoenaing Justice Clarence Thomas to testify about his reported ethical violations without Feinstein in attendance. Senate Republicans have proclaimed satisfaction with the status quo and promised to block any temporary replacement for Feinstein on Judiciary. But here’s the thing: If they were smart, they’d have let Democrats have their way. Instead, they’ve likely sped up the process for Feinstein’s permanent departure from the Senate.

Feinstein should look at who is blocking her attempt to keep her seat without angering her party.

Feinstein’s office issued a statement last week saying that she’s requested Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., “to ask the Senate to allow another Democratic senator to temporarily serve until I’m able to resume my committee work.” On the surface, that seems like the perfect solution. But temporarily trading committees in the middle of a session isn’t easily done.

Like almost all Senate rules, though, the committee’s membership could be changed via unanimous consent, where all 100 senators give their leave to fudge things just a bit. Alternatively, the body could pass a resolution to shift committee assignments, which would require 60 votes to break any potential filibuster. In the last several days, though, the Senate GOP has with various degrees of cattiness made clear that either possibility is simply not gonna happen .

This makes absolute sense for Republicans in the short term. With Feinstein sidelined, the already glacial pace of the Senate slows even further, especially when it comes to bestowing judicial nominees with lifetime appointments. As Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told NBC News : “They’d like Republicans to help them speed the appointment of more liberal justices? Yes — when hell freezes over.” With no timeline for Feinstein’s return, this state of limbo could last indefinitely . While she has said that she will not run for re-election next year , her term doesn’t end until January 2025, leaving open the untenable scenario of her seat laying fallow for over a year and a half.

If Feinstein resigns entirely, though, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fellow Democrat, would appoint a replacement to complete her term. From there, the process is much better established than the ad hoc swap that Feinstein’s office proposed. There’d be no way for Republicans to block either Feinstein’s successor or another senator from taking her spot on Judiciary. Daniel S. Holt, assistant historian at the Senate Historical Office, points to a report from the Congressional Research Service (bolding added):

In filling vacancies that occur on standing committees after their initial organization, Senate Democrats follow the same procedure used for each new Congress. Committee vacancies may occur during the course of a Congress because party leaders decide to change a committee’s size or party ratio, or because Members die, change parties, or resign from the Senate. A new Senator replacing a late or former Senator may be chosen to fill the vacated committee seats. However, if the new Senator is of the opposite party from the departed Senator, adjustments in sizes and ratios often are needed to make slots for the new Senator. Moreover, incumbents also might seek to compete for the newly open committee seats, especially if they occur on one of the more prestigious panels, such as the Appropriations Committee or the Finance Committee.

It’s ironic then that Republicans’ opposition to a temporary switch removed a potential pressure release valve against the growing calls for Feinstein’s resignation. The option was only floated as a possibility after several Democratic lawmakers began openly saying what had only been whispered on Capitol Hill before then: It’s time for Feinstein to go . It was clear that she and her staff hoped that if she was no longer a roadblock on Judiciary, the calls for her resignation would die down again.

But this is just the latest in a string of reasons why Feinstein should step down. Before her latest sabbatical, multiple reports of memory loss and other declining cognitive abilities warranted her clearing the path for someone who can better represent California’s interests. And while backing Feinstein being swapped off Judiciary would be a short-term loss for Republicans, anyone who would fill her seat post-resignation would almost certainly be a more frequently reliable presence in the Senate for Democrats.  

If nothing else, Feinstein should look at who is blocking her attempt to keep her seat without angering her party. Senate Republicans are gambling that her reticence to retire will outweigh her commitment to achieving broader goals for her party and country. That includes even supposed moderates like Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, whose audacious claim that she’s acting against a “concerted campaign to force her [Feinstein] off of the Judiciary Committee” must be taken with a grain of partisan salt. It would be in the interest of her health, her constituents and her legacy for Feinstein to defy their expectations and do the right thing by stepping down.

Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MSNBC Daily, where he helps frame the news of the day for readers. He was previously at BuzzFeed News and holds a degree in international relations from Michigan State University.

Republicans push back against Dems' plan to replace Feinstein on Judiciary panel

by MARY CLARE JALONICK | Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans blocked a Democratic request to temporarily replace California Sen. Dianne Feinstein on the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, leaving Democrats with few options for moving some of President Joe Biden's stalled judicial nominees.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, objected to a resolution offered by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that would have allowed another senator to take Feinstein's place on the panel while the Democrat recuperates from a case of shingles. Republicans have argued that Democrats only want a stand-in to push through the most partisan judges, noting that many of Biden's nominees have bipartisan support and can move to the Senate floor for a vote.

As he objected, Graham said Democrats were trying to "change the numbers on the committee in a way that I think would be harmful to Senate, and to pass out a handful of judges that I think should never be on the bench.

Democrats could still hold a roll call vote on the request. But with what appears to be unified GOP opposition to the move, it would likely be rejected.

Feinstein, 89, made the unusual request last week after pressure from Democrats who are concerned about the judicial nominees and amid some calls for her resignation. She has been absent from the Senate since February and has given no date for a return, creating a headache for Democrats who are hoping to use their majority to confirm as many of President Joe Biden's judicial nominees as possible.

Ahead of the vote, Schumer said the replacement for Feinstein would be Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, a lawyer and third-term senator from Maryland. Schumer would not answer questions about whether he thinks Feinstein should consider resigning, but said he had spoken to Feinstein and "she and I are both very hopeful that she will return soon."

Earlier Tuesday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called the effort to place a substitute on the panel as Feinstein recovers from a case of shingles "an extremely unusual" request with no known precedent.

Let's be clear," said McConnell in remarks on the Senate floor. "Senate Republicans will not take part in sidelining a temporarily absent colleague off a committee just so Democrats can force through their very worst nominees.

McConnell's comments came after several Republican senators said on Monday that they wouldn't support the Democratic plan — both because they don't want to help Democrats confirm liberal judges and because they don't think senators should try to push out one of their own.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Chuck Grassley of Iowa said they think Democrats are pressuring Feinstein unfairly.

Collins said that she and Feinstein are good friends, and she thinks there has been a "concerted campaign" to push her off the judiciary committee. "I will have no part of that," Collins said.

Feinstein has come under increasing pressure to resign or step down from her duties. While she has defended her effectiveness, she has faced questions in recent years about her cognitive health and memory, and has appeared increasingly frail.

In 2020, she said she would not serve as the top Democrat on the judiciary panel after criticism from liberals about her handling of Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation. Earlier this year, she said she would not serve as the Senate president pro tempore, or the most senior member of the majority party, even though she was in line to do so. The president pro tempore opens the Senate every day and holds other ceremonial duties.

Grassley, a longtime member of the panel who is the same age as Feinstein, chastised Democrats for denying Feinstein the opportunity to become chairman of the committee and trying to force her out of office "because she's old."

"I don't intend to give credence to that sort of anti-human treatment," Grassley said.

If Feinstein were to resign immediately, the process would be much easier for Democrats, since California Gov. Gavin Newsom would appoint a replacement. The Senate regularly approves committee assignments for new senators after their predecessors have resigned or died. But a temporary replacement due to illness is a rare, if not unprecedented, request.

Some Democrats have called for her full resignation. Her statement asking for a temporary substitute came shortly after Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., called on her to resign from the Senate, saying it is "unacceptable" for her to miss votes to confirm judges who could be weighing in on abortion rights, a key Democratic priority.

Another member of the California delegation, Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar, said Tuesday that Feinstein is "a legend in California politics and a legend in the Senate chamber" but that her vote will be needed as Congress tries to figure out how to raise the debt ceiling this year.

I will say that our expectation as House Democrats is that every senator is going to need to participate," he said, adding that "she should get to choose that timeline.

Asked if Feinstein should resign, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin said Monday, "I'm not going to push her into any other decision." Durbin had previously expressed frustration about his committee's stalled nominees.

Durbin appealed to his Republican colleagues to "show a little kindness and caring for their colleague."

If the Senate votes to replace her on the panel, "I think we can take care of this issue, do it very quickly," Durbin said. "I hope we can find 10 Republicans who will join us in that effort."

Laphonza Butler is sworn in, filling Dianne Feinstein's Senate seat

WASHINGTON — Laphonza Butler was sworn in Tuesday to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who died last week at age 90 .

Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been a longtime ally of and adviser to Butler, administered the oath of office, prompting boisterous applause from the Senate floor and gallery.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom moved quickly to select Butler , who was the president of EMILY’s List, on Sunday. She is the third Black woman to serve as a senator, following Harris until she became vice president and Carol Moseley Braun, D-Ill., in the 1990s.

Butler, the first openly LGBTQ person to represent California in the chamber, will serve alongside fellow California Democrat Alex Padilla.

After her swearing-in ceremony, President Joe Biden called Butler to congratulate her, the White House said.

Butler had led EMILY’s List, a group focused on electing Democratic women who support abortion rights, since 2021, when she became the first Black woman to lead the organization.

"I am honored to accept Gov. Newsom’s nomination to be a U.S. Senator for a state I have long called home,” Butler said in a statement Monday. “I am humbled by the Governor’s trust. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s leadership and legacy are immeasurable. I will do my best to honor her by devoting my time and energy to serving the people of California and the people of this great nation."

Butler resides in Maryland, but a spokesman, Matthew Wing, told NBC News on Monday that she had re-registered to vote in California.

With her swearing-in, the Democrats again have a 51-49 majority; it puts them in a position to fill Feinstein’s seat on the Judiciary Committee, which is deadlocked.

Feinstein had said she would not run for re-election in 2024. Major contenders in the Senate race are Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee.

Before Feinstein’s death, Newsom had said he planned to make an “ interim ” appointment if he needed to fill her seat, because he did not want to tip the scales toward any of the current candidates.

He made it clear, however, that no restrictions were put on Butler’s appointment and that she was free to run if she wanted. Butler will serve out the rest of Feinstein's term, which ends in early 2025. She has not yet indicated whether she plans to run for the seat.

Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.

Liz Brown-Kaiser covers Capitol Hill for NBC News.

Dianne Feinstein Returning to Senate After Nearly 3-Month Absence

Feinstein, 89, has been away for nearly three months due to health-related issues, by max molski • published may 9, 2023 • updated on may 9, 2023 at 4:15 pm.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is returning to Congress after nearly three months away, her spokesperson, Adam Russell, said.

Feinstein has been recovering from shingles . At 89 years old, she is the oldest member of the Senate.

Feinstein's last Senate vote came on Feb. 16. She missed a total of 91 floor votes during her absence, according to an NBC News tally , and is expected to make her next one on Wednesday.

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Senate Republicans Block Democrats' Request to Replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Judiciary Panel

Sen. Dianne Feinstein Faces First Calls to Resign From Members of Congress

Feinstein's absence made it difficult for Democrats to confirm some of President Joe Biden's nominees. On the Judiciary Committee, a 11-10 advantage for Democrats became a 10-10 split with Republicans, halting attempts to confirm certain judges.

Democrats attempted to temporarily move Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., into Feinstein's place on the Judiciary Committee, but Republicans kept that from taking shape . There were also calls for her to resign so California Gov. Gavin Newsom could name a Democratic replacement.

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Feinstein said in a statement last month that her absence did not create a "slowdown."

"I’m confident that when I return to the Senate, we will be able to move the remaining qualified nominees out of committee quickly and to the Senate floor for a vote," she said.

Feinstein announced in February that she won't run for reelection in 2024. Her current term ends in early 2025.

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