Senators are now required to dress in formal attire while on the Senate floor, according to a unanimously decided bill passed Sept. 27. The legislature comes after the previous unwritten dress code was relaxed by Sen. Chuck Schumer, who announced that members should not have to follow strict dress code rules.
After Schumer’s statement, Sen. John Fetterman wore shorts and a hoodie to vote, much to the dismay of many members of the Senate according to CNN. This sparked the initial idea for the new resolution of an official dress code.
However, Fetterman only voted in this attire from the cloakroom, a smaller room used to vote by Senators “rushing back from travel or a more casual engagement,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. He only introduced the attire to the Senate floor when Schumer declared senators could choose what to wear.
Despite the uproar from senators, particularly those in the Republican party, casual attire has been seen before on the Senate floor, with arguably less decorum than Fetterman. In August 2022, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz appeared on the Senate floor after coming straight from a basketball game in sweaty workout clothes, ready to vote.
The lack of consistency between Senate members is apparent at every step of this process. If all Congress members always supported a formal dress code, it should have been instituted before. Schumer making this declaration went against the supposed standard of the Senate.
Schumer indicated his belief that the dress code was a personal choice by saying that senators could choose what to wear; his own personal choice would be to wear a suit. However, after setting this conflicting standard, he endorsed a bill requiring the complete opposite.
A letter from the majority of the Republicans in the Senate stating their disappointment at Schumer’s statement shows the disconnect and inconsistency between the parties; under pressure from the right, Democratic Schumer revokes his initial view of dress being a personal choice. This bill would have held more water if there had been a united front on the issue.
As long as Congressional productivity can be seen by individual members and the group as a whole, the dress code is a lesser concern than it seems to be in the eyes of Republican Congress members. A dignified dress code should be upheld to an extent, but other issues take precedence.
Fetterman himself hopes that the members of Congress will focus on more significant issues at hand.
“If those jagoffs in the House stop trying to shut our government down, and fully support Ukraine, then I will save democracy by wearing a suit on the Senate floor next week,” he stated on Twitter.
Fetterman has focused on real issues in his time as senator while searching for solutions to long-term issues in Pennsylvania, his most recent being the Universal School Meals Program Act Of 2023. This act, co-sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders, would provide three free meals and a snack to students per day while also reimbursing schools for these meal plans.
These issues, which are prominent throughout the United States, are what the Senate should be focused on. While they complain about Fetterman’s outfit of the day, he is attempting to do what the Senate was created to do: create laws to help the public.
