The United States Senate voted to relax its dress code enforcement. The new rule, which is known as the “Fetterman Rule,” was named after Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, who is known for his questionable dress
The Fetterman Rule allows senators to wear whatever they want on the Senate floor, as long as it is “respectful of the decorum of the Senate.” This means that senators can no longer be required to wear suits and ties.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms to stop enforcement of the dress code, a change that will go into effect next week, Axios reported on Sunday.
“Senators are able to choose what they wear on the Senate floor. I will continue to wear a suit,” Schumer said in a statement to the news outlet.
The change is focused on only senators and not staff members.
“Senators can now [wear] what ever (sic) they want. However, others entering the chamber must comply with the dress code. Coats/ties for men. Business attire for women,” Fox News journalist Chad Pergram said in a post to X, confirming the Axios report.
The Associated Press (AP) reported in May that Fetterman, who wears mostly hoodies and shorts, worked around the rules for the Senate floor by popping in to vote from the doorway of the Democratic cloakroom or side entrance.
“He’s setting a new dress code,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) joked at the time.
“People close to Fetterman say his relaxed, comfortable style is a sign that the senator is making a robust recovery after six weeks of inpatient treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where his clinical depression was treated with medication and he was fitted for hearing aids for hearing loss that had made it harder for him to communicate,” the report said.
Schumer is changing the senate dress code for Fetterman but if you’re a low level staffer you still need to wear a suit pic.twitter.com/25TEY2o1zP
— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) September 17, 2023
