Several Republican senators are sounding off after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) quietly changed the Senate’s dress code to allow senators to wear whatever they want on the floor, with one calling the move “completely disrespectful.”
The change in policy went into effect beginning on Monday after a notice went out to the Senate sergeant-at-arms on Friday, directing her no longer to enforce the chamber’s dress code for its members.
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The change would allow Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) to wear casual attire on the Senate floor. The freshman senator is notorious for wearing his signature hoodie and gym shorts in the halls of Congress. Fetterman has been seen wearing casual clothing after he returned to the Senate following his hospitalization for clinical depression earlier this year.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said he believes the change was made with Fetterman in mind.
“There’s no question. I sit on a committee with John Fetterman. I have seen him in a suit once,” Mullin said during an interview on Fox News on Monday. “I don’t like wearing a suit any more than anybody else. It’s respect for the position that we need to hold high, and it seems completely disrespectful for the people that put him in the position and the position to which he holds.”
While the Senate’s dress code is described by aides as “informal,” it has been adhered to over the past 20 years. However, it has been circumvented numerous times by lawmakers who arrive at the Capitol to vote from the airport or the gym by voting from the edge of the Senate floor, with one foot still in the cloakroom.
“Chuck Schumer certainly did not consult with me before he made this change,” Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said during an appearance on Fox News. “I think it’s just another step in the movement by the Democrats to transform America, to take us to a different place, a different place that is much less respectful than we historically have been.”
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“The United States Senate is the world’s most important deliberative body, and to see it completely downgraded, no dress code now, I just think it’s another step in the wrong direction,” Hagerty added.
The change does not apply to staff or visitors, who are still required to abide by the old dress code. Under that standard, men and women have been required to wear business attire on the Senate floor.