On April 18 the U.S. Senate unanimously agreed to instigate a momentous rule change, its first since 1977 when service dogs were first permitted to enter the chamber. Members backed a motion allowing senators with babies younger than one year old to bring the baby along as the mother voted. They did so without debate to accommodate a vital vote next day. Older children had long been accepted as visitors.
The baby involved was ten-day-old Maile, second daughter of 50-year-old Senator Tammy Duckworth from Illinois. Other female senators lobbied to support Duckworth to update the archaic rule. From now on mothers can not only bring their babes with them into the senate while they vote, they can also nurse their baby, even change its diaper. You can only imagine how discombobulating this might be for senators in their dotage although I wouldn’t be shocked if I learned one or two of them wear Depends.
Men questioned the proposed rule change: Who would care for the baby while the mother voted? Someone suggested a senate staffer could babysit the baby while the mother cast her vote.. Promptly following news of this rule change and such an outrageous notion, a reader posted, “I don’t want anyone babysitting on my tax dollars!” That Duckworth was on unpaid maternity leave when she stopped in for the vote was deliberately overlooked.
One senator proposed a mother could vote from the cloakroom the way sick senators do, peeking around the corner like a shy child to voice their Yes or No. Where would equality be in that?
Another asked what if ten babies arrived on the floor at one time? How much disruption might that create? “That would be fun,” the women answered.
Men had reason to consider future numbers. Of the 1299 senators since 1789 only 52 have been female. Those numbers are in for rebalancing this November; a record number of women have registered to run for elected office. Given the enthusiasm following Trump-inspired women’s rallies, many of them could be of child-bearing age. Duckworth is one of only ten senators to give birth while elected. Future senates could indeed display more elements typical of a daycare.
While they were at it, the women’s group succeeded in exempting babies from the centuries old dress code — for males slacks, dress shirt, jacket and tie; for women dress pants with a jacket, or knee length skirts or dresses, blouses with sleeves, topped by a jacket. A minimum of bare skin is the goal. (A female reporter was once barred from entering the Senate because she wore a sleeveless top. ) Still, to be on the safe side, for her brief Senate visit, Duckworth outfitted her ten-day-old in a duckling patterned onesie trimmed with yellow piping, and a teal cardigan.
It’s fitting Senator Duckworth led the overthrow of anachronistic fashion restrictions. Throughout her adult life she has gone outside the norm. She became an army helicopter pilot when that was one of the few ways for a woman to serve in U. S. combat. She was the first American female double amputee from the Iraq war after the Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting in 2004 was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents. She lost her right leg near the hip, her left leg below the knee, and almost destroyed her right arm. She now ambulates on prostheses, once hid her cell phone in one of her prostheses so it wouldn’t be confiscated.
I wonder if before this historic rule change someone sought advice from the budget office on the cost of installing change tables in both men’s and women’s bathrooms to accommodate parents of both sexes?
