U.S. senators no longer have to dress to impress.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that staff for the chamber’s sergeant-at-arms will no longer be tasked with enforcing a dress code on the Senate floor.
With Congress debating a possible government shutdown and whether there should be age limits for lawmakers, the Senate’s dress code change comes to mostly accommodate Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who unapologetically wears his trademark hoodies and shorts as does his duties. Fetterman often votes from doorways or sticks his head inside the chambers to avoid getting into trouble for his more casual wear.
“There has been an informal dress code that was enforced,” Schumer said in a statement Monday, without mentioning Fetterman by name. “Senators are able to choose what they wear on the Senate floor. I will continue to wear a suit.”
In response, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine joked to reporters she planned to “wear a bikini” Tuesday. “I think there is a certain dignity that we should be maintaining in the Senate, and to do away with the dress code, to me, debases the institution,” Collins said.
Alabama GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a former head football coach at Auburn University, said Monday it bothered him “big time.” He joked that he’d sport a “coaching outfit” during his next Senate floor appearance. “You got people walking around in shorts, that don’t fly with me,” Tuberville said.
But some etiquette experts said the lowering of the bar in terms of…
