Republicans lament turning Senate into a ‘sports bar’

AFP – Washington United States senators will now be able to dress however they want, after Democrats ended the requirement to wear a jacket and tie, a change that is not to everyone’s liking. 

The leader of the Democratic majority of the Upper House of Congress, Chuck Schumer, announced that it is no longer necessary to apply an unwritten dress code, the abolition of which was announced on Sunday. However, some congressmen, especially Republicans, consider it an insult to decorum.

The rules apply to everyone but they suit Democratic Senator John Fetterman, like a glove. He is a lover of shorts and hoodies,a dress that became his signature in the electoral campaign to enter the Senate.

Schumer said that senators will be able to dress however they want but he will continue to wear a suit.

The new rules have led to ridicule from the right. Republican Susan Collins joked on NBC that she planned to wear a “bikini.” “I think there’s a certain dignity we should maintain in the Senate, and doing away with the dress code, to me, degrades the institution,” she said.

Republican Senator Bill Hagerty told Fox Business: the measure is “one more step in the Democrats’ movement to transform America, to take us to a place much less respectful than we have been historically.”

Fellow Wyoming Republican Cynthia Lummis lamented a decision that “dishonors” a prestigious institution with the power to remove the president, confirm Supreme Court justices, and ratify international treaties.

“Out of respect, we should have a little decorum,” said Kansas Senator Roger Marshall. 

His North Dakota colleague, Kevin Cramer, denounced an attempt to “turn the United States Senate into a sports bar.”

To Fetterman, on the contrary, it seems positive, because it gives “a little more freedom” in a chamber where the average age is over 65, and he estimates that “the right seems to be losing its mind” on the issue.

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have relaxed rules in recent years so that women can wear sleeveless dresses. And in 2019 the House gave the green light on religious headdresses to allow the Islamic veil worn by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.