Dianne Feinstein's final day in the Senate

Dianne Feinstein’s final day in the Senate

A woman with short dark hair, in blue jacket, stands as men in suits flanking her applaud

Sept. 29, 2023 Updated 3:19 PM PT

WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein wasn’t feeling well this week, so she skipped a Thursday morning Judiciary Committee meeting, as has become her custom since her health declined in recent months. But she had told Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) that she would be available if he needed her for an important vote.

He needed her.

Congress was locked in another stare-down with far-right lawmakers over keeping the government open and the Senate was hoping to extend a Saturday night deadline.

Just after noon, Feinstein walked onto the Senate floor in a purple suit with the help of her chief of staff, James Sauls. She raised her right hand as she told the clerk, “Aye.”

Most of the other senators had already cast their votes and gone back to their offices. Feinstein appeared to catch a glimpse of Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who looked up from her phone to offer a warm smile.

“She voted to make sure that our country would continue to move forward and not shut down,” Murray recalled in a tribute from the same Senate floor Friday. “That was Dianne. She did her job every day.”

It was the last of more than 9,500 votes Feinstein cast in three decades and her last appearance in the Senate, an institution where she went from a power broker in her prime, shaking up the national security establishment, to a 90-year-old lawmaker who struggled to leave her home amid demands that she hasten her retirement plans.

She did not return for two more votes related to the Endangered Species Act later in the day on Thursday.

She was instead driven back to her spacious brownstone in northwest Washington, where she changed into a more casual blue jacket to greet Jane Harman, a retired Los Angeles member of the U.S. House and friend of more than four decades who shared her passion for foreign affairs and advancing women leaders.

“She was put together. She was enormously present. She was trying to talk me into running for Congress again,” Harman said in an interview.

Harman said no to the political comeback but yes to Feinstein’s other idea, a series of dinners with influential Beltway women that Harman intends to now christen as the “DiFi dinners.”

As they sat and talked, Feinstein had her daily schedule in front of her and her dog, Kirby II, sitting on her lap. The first Kirby had died but her late husband, Richard Blum, surprised her with Kirby II on an airplane.

The two women discussed politics, families and friends. Harman thought Feinstein looked better than she had all year. Feinstein had to bow out of a lunch in her honor at Harman’s house just a few weeks ago, canceling at the last minute after all the other guests had arrived.

The recent mockery of Feinstein, amid her weakened physical state, had been hurtful, Harman said. Feinstein thought she needed to stay on the job to make sure California was taken care of in the budget, she said.

In Feinstein’s earlier years, “that woman never stopped,” said Alexis Podesta, who served as her scheduler from 2002 through 2007. The calls and meetings started when she left her house and ended with dinner appointments.

Thursday, the senator seemed lucid and content, enjoying the chocolates and garden roses Harman brought.

“Life is fragile. We knew she was declining, but no one knew the end was now — and certainly she didn’t,” Harman said. “She was planning for her future and thinking about the country.”

About 5 p.m., Feinstein’s housekeeper, Rosalinda Ilagan, took a picture of the old friends. Harman gave Feinstein a hug and a kiss and told her she loved her.

Feinstein’s daughter, Katherine, came by in the evening and stayed the night.

Feinstein went to bed sometime after Harman left and died around 2 a.m. Friday, according to her office.

Times staff writers Erin B. Logan, Sarah D. Wire and Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu contributed to this report.