WASHINGTON — Speaker of the House Paul Ryan announced Thursday plans to “modernize” the House’s dress code.
Female reporters were ejected for wearing open toe shoes and showing their shoulders last week, violating the longtime House dress code, which applies to member and staffers on the House floor and to reporters outside the floor in the Speaker’s Lobby.
The House dress code, which has existed for generations, has separate rules for men and women.
“Over the break, it came to my attention that there was an issue about dress code,” Ryan told reporters at his weekly press conference Thursday. “To be honest, this was not an issue that was covered in my new speaker orientation ceremony. The sergeant of arms was simply enforcing the same interpretation of the rules as under my predecessors that this is nothing new and certainly not something that I devised.”
“At the same time that doesn’t mean that enforcement couldn’t stand to be a bit modernized. So that is why we will be working with the sergeant of arms to ensure the enforcement of appropriate business attire is updated. Decorum is important. Especially for this institution and a dress code in the chamber in the lobby makes sense. But we also don’t need to bar otherwise except the contemporary business attire. So look for a change on that soon.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who also enforced the dress code when she was speaker just a few years ago, applauded Ryan’s announcement in a tweet, but some wondered why Pelosi never bothered to update it herself, when she held the gavel.
They do seem worthy of updating. Curious that his immediate predecessors didn’t do so. Who were they again? https://t.co/DedB7vRTyQ
— Matt Viser (@mviser) July 13, 2017
Ryan made the announcement one day after Arizona Republican Rep. Martha McSally entered the House floor to give remarks and declared she was breaking dress code by wearing a dress that showed her shoulders and shoes that were open-toed.
.@RepMcSally takes jab at Speaker’s lobby dress code https://t.co/RDlUs83QnO pic.twitter.com/EgHMCrlCg0
— azfamily 3TV CBS 5 (@azfamily) July 13, 2017