Rep. Slaughter back on the job

WASHINGTON, June 19 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter, 82, returned to work on Capitol Hill after breaking her leg in April, and received a warm welcome from her colleagues.

Slaughter, a Democrat who represents upstate New York in the House, was greeted in the Rules Committee Monday by sometime adversary Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, who told her, "You look great. You look wonderful."

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., presented her with a horn for her motorized scooter "for the sake of our slow-walking members," he said.

Slaughter suffered a fracture of left femur, above the knee and into the knee joint, while crossing a New York City street, the Buffalo, N.Y., News reported Tuesday.

After a decade of representing the Buffalo and Rochester areas, she faces a stiff re-election challenge in her 25th Congressional District, which has been redrawn and consists largely of Monroe County, the area surrounding the city of Rochester. Her Republican challenger will be Maggie Brooks, popular county executive of Monroe County, the newspaper said.