Rep. Claude D. Pepper was reported as "pretty weak" Friday and in "very serious condition" at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a friend and aide said.
"He's pretty weak but he's not in pain or anything," Bob Smith said in a telephone interview from the congressman's Washington home.Pepper, 88, was first hospitalized April 6 for an undisclosed stomach ailment. The Florida Democratic, the oldest member of Congress, recently received treatment at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore but was transferred back to Walter Reed on Monday, Smith said.
Pepper, of Miami, is chairman of the House Rules Committee, the powerful panel that helps the Democratic leadership command the timing and scope of debate in the chamber.