Congress didn’t do a lot legislating in the course of the 21 days the House lacked a Speaker. The House was too paralyzed to take up new business; the Senate couldn’t take up main payments with out the opposite chamber’s management restored. But the Senate did handle to approve one item throughout that fallow interval: “A resolution authorizing the use of the atrium in the Philip A. Hart Senate Office Building for the “Bipawtisan Howl-o-ween Dog Pawrade,” which was held on Halloween afternoon.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) has hosted the annual occasion since 2019, save for a pause (paws?) in 2020 due to the pandemic. Tillis had contracted covid-19 and was unable to meet his emcee duties (though his staffers nonetheless have been tasked with directing house owners and dogs alongside the makeshift parade route from a financial institution of elevators into the building’s hovering atrium).
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) stepped in for Tillis, his past dog faux pas (fake paws?) apparently behind him. He stood on the heart of the atrium with a megaphone, doing his finest to determine costumes, lacking extra typically than hitting. “What kind of beautiful beast is this?” Romney requested as a princess trotted down the aisle. His colour commentary got here with a touch of cringe. “We have a threesome going on here!” the senator howled as two dogs dressed as Uncle Sam tried to skirmish with a Minnie Mouse.
There have been dogs dressed to represent their lawmakers’ states; one in every of them was a squat little pooch belonging to a staffer for Sen. Angus King (I) that was dressed as a lobster to symbolize Maine. Some dogs wore politically themed costumes: Consider the pooch of a Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer who dressed his goldendoodle because the Chinese spy balloon. There have been dogs in unintentionally political costumes: Elizabeth Dent, a staffer for Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee, has dressed her fluffy white canine, Pippin, as a panda for a number of years — however this 12 months it was significantly well timed, in mild of the upcoming transfer of the National Zoo’s three beloved pandas to China.
“We did not want to make a political statement,” Dent mentioned. “Pippin’s just trying to be fluffy and cute.”
For probably the most half, there have been simply dogs in all places, most of them belonging to staffers of the House and Senate, dressed up as every kind of conventional Halloween characters: Cowboys and dragons and Harry Potter wizards and unicorns and firefighters. A French bulldog wore a beret and a Breton striped shirt. A Cavalier King Charles spaniel wore a crown and purple cape, identical to King Charles. Two cardboard graham crackers and cotton marshmallows reworked a chocolate lab named Bennie right into a s’extra. A husky was dolled up as cowgirl Barbie, and a golden retriever was dressed as Ken.
And there have been tons of people, too, jammed into the atrium and lining all seven flooring of the building, wanting down onto the spooky spectacle. “This is the best one yet. It’s the most dogs and the most people,” mentioned Adam Webb, Tillis’s communications director. Romney admonished the staffers who had emerged from their workplaces to observe. “You guys up there? You’ve got no dogs. Go back to work!” he shouted by way of his megaphone.
This was an area, because the title instructed, freed from pawtisanship and the standard business of the legislative department. Some enterprising lobbyist dogs however tried their hand: A golden retriever dressed as a medieval princess, belonging to a lobbyist for the Wine and Spirit Wholesalers, received a great sniff of Goldie, Romney’s workplace canine dressed as a scorching canine. (Lobbyists’ and senators’ dogs, they’re identical to their house owners!) She ultimately rendezvoused with the canine belonging to an Aflac lobbyist dressed, after all, because the Aflac duck.
The lawmakers have been stuffed with enthusiasm. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) stood close to the entrance of the parade, snapping images with a joyful smile. “It’s her favorite day,” a Hassan staffer mentioned. (Hassan didn’t have a canine within the parade, however the staffer had introduced hers dressed as a mermaid.)
Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) dressed their goldendoodles because the couple of the second: Gillibrand’s Maple as Taylor Swift and Fischer’s Fred as Travis Kelce. Gillibrand confirmed that Maple, in a silvery mirrored gown, is a Swiftie, though she hesitated to call the canine’s favourite track; a staffer instructed “Shake It Off,” since Maple had spent a lot of the day making an attempt to shake off her costume.
Shane O’Neill contributed to this report.
