A House Democrat is drafting legislation to force members of Congress to publicly account for extended absences, a response to the back-to-back disappearances of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J., that left constituents in the dark for months.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., is preparing the Duty of Transparency Act, which would require any lawmaker missing votes for three weeks to file a disclosure statement with the House or Senate ethics committee, Axios first reported Tuesday.

Under the draft, members would not have to reveal a diagnosis or medical records.

They would have to say whether they can perform official duties remotely, estimate the length of the absence, and name a point of contact in their office.

The disclosures would be posted publicly online within 48 hours, and offices unable to project a return date could say so and provide updates every 30 days.

Members who fail to file would be referred to the appropriate ethics process.

The bill grew out of two absences that dominated Capitol Hill for months.

Kean returned to the House floor on June 30 after missing more than 135 roll call votes since March 5, revealing that he had been hospitalized and treated for depression.

Days later, dispatch audio and an EMS recording drew fresh scrutiny to McConnell's condition after his June 14 hospitalization.

The 84-year-old former Senate Republican leader broke his silence Sunday, saying he had fallen at home, was briefly unconscious and developed "a mild case of pneumonia" during treatment.

The Office of the Attending Physician attributed the fall to McConnell's post-polio condition.

Both men faced sharp criticism for offering little detail as their absences stretched.

Kentucky Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear publicly pressed McConnell's office for an update. Torres, who has spoken about his own hospitalization for depression, argued after Kean's speech that "public office carries a duty of transparency."

The mechanism is narrow by design: it targets disclosure, not diagnosis, and leaves treatment details private while giving voters a baseline of information about who is representing them and for how long.

If a lawmaker is incapacitated, a chief of staff or another designee could file.

Enforcement runs through existing ethics machinery rather than creating a new body.

Whether the proposal moves is another question.

Measures that constrain members' own conduct, from stock-trading limits to attendance rules, have repeatedly stalled on Capitol Hill.

Torres has not yet formally introduced the legislation.