Mitch McConnell is back in the Senate after a 92-day absence, and his first vote pushed a Republican farm bill forward while cutting food aid — bad news for millions of Americans who rely on SNAP, and a bad look for a Congress already seen as controlled by donors.

• McConnell, 84, returned after a fall in June and cast the tie-breaking vote in committee to advance the farm bill.
• Footage shows aides prompting his votes, and his team blocked reporters from filming him, fueling doubts he is fit to serve.
• Democrats opposed the bill because it shifts SNAP costs onto states too fast, after Trump's big tax-and-spending bill already cut 3.5 million people from food aid.
• The same bill cut $1.1 trillion from programs like SNAP and Medicaid while giving $1.1 trillion in tax cuts to people earning over $500,000.
• The episode echoes Dianne Feinstein's final years and reinforces the view that senators vote as their donors want, not as independent lawmakers.

Outlook: The farm bill heads to the full Senate with the SNAP fight unresolved, while food prices are expected to keep rising into early next year, putting more people in need of help they may not get.