In a vote to increase funds for the Department of Defense, California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein was told to say “aye” during the initial vote.  

The incident with Feinstein, the Senate’s oldest serving member at 90, occurred during the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee’s roll call before a vote on the defense appropriations bill.

Feinstein was on leave for two months. She only recently returned to the Senate from California after recovering from a health scare of shingles. 

Feinstein appeared confused about the session’s trajectory in the proceedings. This was made clear when she began reading her prepared remarks, instead of confirming her vote on the DoD budget increase.  

“I am in favor of supporting a yes vote on this. It allocates 823 billion dollars, which represents a 26 billion increase for the Department of Defense and covers the funding for submitted priorities,” Feinstein said before being cut off by a staffer who informed her the committee was still in the process of doing roll call. 

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) then leaned over and told Feinstein to say “aye” twice. This transpired only for Feinstein to respond in a rather confused manner at first about what was being said to her.

Feinstein realized her error, laughing and voting “aye” to allocate over 823 billion dollars to the DoD. A spokesman for Feinstein told Fox News her stumble came from the session being somewhat “chaotic.” 

According to the staffers, the senator became preoccupied with the various orders. Feinstein ended up being taken aback by the constant shifts between statements, votes, and debates, causing a chaotic atmosphere and frequently changing the order of bills.

In February, Feinstein, representing California in the Senate since 1992, declared that she would not seek re-election in 2024. After an absence of nearly three months due to the diagnosis, Feinstein resumed work at the Capitol on May 11.