The United States Senate just got a little less stuffy.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that the Senate's dress code will no longer be enforced by the Sergeant-at-Arms — the official in charge of enforcing certain policies of decorum in the Senate chambers.
“There has been an informal dress code that was enforced,” Schumer said in a statement. “Senators are able to choose what they wear on the Senate floor. I will continue to wear a suit.”
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman has already been wearing casual clothes while performing his duties, voting from doorways so not to get removed from the chambers. In announcing the change in dress code, Schumer did not reference Fetterman, but clarified that the new rule would only apply to senators, not their staff.
While Schumer did not cite Fetterman as motivation for the change, several prominent Republicans have slammed him while speaking out against the decision. At a press conference in Jacksonville, GOP presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis referenced the senator while accusing the Senate of "dumbing down" their standards.
"The US Senate just eliminated its dress code because you got this guy from Pennsylvania who’s got a lot of problems ... he wears, like, sweatshirts and hoodies and shorts ... We need to be lifting up our standards in this country, not dumbing down.”
Fetterman responded to DeSantis, whose presidential campaign has been infamously lackluster, writing on X: “I dress like he campaigns.”
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene, who once dressed as a balloon during a State of the Union address, wrote online that Schumer's decision was "disgraceful," and that it was done to “appease” Fetterman.
Fetterman responded to the conservative, pointing to her behavior in a recent hearing concerning Hunter Biden, when she showed unrelated explicit pictures to her colleagues.
“Thankfully,” Fetterman said, “the nation’s lower chamber lives by a higher code of conduct: displaying ding-a-ling pics in public hearings.”
Fetterman also retweeted a message from Tina Smith, a Democratic colleague, who pointed out the impending government shutdown when addressing Republican complaints.
“Seriously? You’re bitching about Senate dress code when House Republicans are about to drive the federal government off a cliff? Again? Talk about disgraceful," she wrote.
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