Senator Dianne Feinstein was not feeling well this week, so she skipped a Judiciary Committee meeting on Thursday morning, as has become her habit since her health deteriorated 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 again locked in a standoff with far-right lawmakers over keeping the government open and the Senate hoped to extend a deadline on Saturday evening.

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 and said to the clerk, “Yes.”

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

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

It was the last of Feinstein’s more than 9,500 votes cast over three decades and her final appearance

time

in the Senate, an institution where she went from a power broker in her prime who shook up the national security establishment to a 90-year-old lawmaker who struggled to leave her home amid demands that she accelerate her retirement plans.

She didn’t come back

to throw

two more votes on the Endangered Species Act later on Thursday.

Instead, she was taken back to her spacious brownstone in Northwest Washington, where she changed into a more casual blue jacket to greet Jane Harman, a retired member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Los Angeles and a campaigner for more than four decades. friend who shared her passion for foreign affairs. and promoting women leaders.

“She was put together. She was a huge presence. She tried to convince me to run 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 now wants to offer as Christians as the “DiFi dinners.”

As they talked, Feinstein had her daily schedule in front of her and her dog, Kirby II, on her lap. The first Kirby was deceased, but her late husband,

Richard

Blum surprised her with Kirby II on a plane.

The two women discussed politics, families and friends. Harman thought Feinstein looked better than he has all year. Feinstein had to interrupt a lunch

in her honor

a few weeks ago at Harman’s house, canceling

in the last minute

after all the other guests had arrived.

The recent mockery of Feinstein, amid her weakened physical condition, had been painful, Harman said. Feinstein felt she should stay on the job to ensure California was taken care of within budget, she said. Thursday, the

Senior

The senator seemed bright and content, enjoying the chocolates and roses that Harman had brought from her garden.

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

About 5 p.m., Feinstein’s housekeeper, Rosalinda Ilagan, took a photo 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 overnight.

Feinstein went to bed once

after Harman later left

And

deceased deceased

according to her office around 2 a.m. on Friday.

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