Opinion: Senate Dress Code
Very recently, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer relaxed the dress code for the Senate floor. The move is seen to largely be in favor of John Fetterman. The Pennsylvania senator, following his recent stay at a hospital for depression, has routinely rejected the suits and ties expected of a senator, choosing to instead wear hoodies and basketball shorts. The move has faced serious backlash from many senators, but the criticism is, largely, meaningless.
The main argument given for why a dress code is necessary is that it shows respect to the institution and the American people than Congress represents. This, however, is a concept that does not stand up well to scrutiny. The idea that someone who is wearing a suit or dress is inherently giving more respect than someone who is dressed casually is antiquated. In the modern world, there are plenty of people who are dressed casually and care deeply about the work they are doing and there are plenty of people who are dressed formally who disrespect the work that they are doing. Many of the GOP senators who are voicing outrage against the change also rejected the validity of the 2020 election. It is incongruent to say that you respect the institutions of American democracy because you wear a suit or a dress, while also rejecting our fair elections.
Another argument for why it was the right call to lax the dress code is considering the context in which it was done. John Fetterman, fighting depression, spent multiple weeks in Walter Reed Military Medical Center. It was mainly after he returned to work that he began to relax his dress and wear his casual clothes on the Senate floor. Already having to battle depression, it seems ridiculous to then force the Senator to also have to wear a suit when he doesn’t want to. In order to be kind to someone who is facing a difficult situation, it’s good to be empathetic towards them and give them more leeway. Having this leeway be more official, through relaxing the dress code, the Senate is giving empathy to the people who could need it the most.
My main critique of Senator Schumer’s policy is that it did not go far enough. For the staffers who work with the Senate, their attire requirements have not changed. As Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown argued, Senators are now allowed to wear whatever they want, while their staffers are still bound by the old rules about attire. In order for the Senate to have any sort of grounds to claim that they are pro-labor or kind to the people who work for them, they can not allow this inequity to continue; if Senators can dress casually, then so should their employees.
The Senate’s decision to relax the enforcement of its dress code policy is a good one that, unfortunately, does not go far enough. Having decorum and showing respect towards America’s higher legislative chamber isn’t determined—or even significantly impacted—by the suits and dresses that the Senators wear. It is instead through working hard for the American people, having empathy towards one another, and ignoring silly issues about clothes in favor of the truly pressing issues of our day.
As I had originally drafted this opinion piece, this was how I concluded. However, the Senate recently completely changed their mind on this issue, re-establishing their dress code on November 27th. My arguments for why I don’t find a dress code beneficial are still true, which is why I think the senate did not act correctly here. However, the unbalance between senators and workers that was established has been reversed, so some good has come from the Senate re-creating their dress code.
"John Fetterman 1 (cropped)" by Governor Tom Wolf is licensed under CC BY 2.0.