(AP) No shorts on the Senate floor.
The Senate voted Wednesday evening to reverse an informal guidance issued by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer last week that senators could wear what they want when voting or speaking in the chamber. The resolution, passed by voice vote with no objections, requires that ”business attire be worn on the floor of the Senate, which for men shall include a coat, tie, and slacks or other long pants.” It did not specify what women should wear.
The bipartisan resolution by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Mitt Romney, R-Utah, comes after backlash to Schumer’s announcement that staff for the chamber’s Sergeant-at-Arms would no longer enforce a dress code on the Senate floor. The guidance came as Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman has been unapologetically wearing shorts and sweatshirts around the Senate, voting from doorways so he didn’t walk on the chamber floor and get in trouble for his casual dress.
“Though we’ve never had an official dress code, the events over the past week have made us all feel as though formalizing one is the right path forward,” Schumer said Wednesday evening, as the resolution by Manchin and Romney passed.
Schumer also thanked Fetterman for ”working with me to come to an agreement that we all find acceptable.”
