The Rules of the Senate are about to change

According to POLITICO, it appears that the Senate is about to make a rare change in the rules to accommodate my Senator, Tammy Duckworth, who just had a baby. The Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee have both expressed support for a change that would allow children under the age of 1 to be brought onto the Senate floor by Senators during votes. This is to allow Senator Duckworth to take care of her newborn while still serving in her role as a Senator. Sen. Duckworth is a tough woman, and while she said she is taking an unofficial maternity leave, she will still be around to take any major votes if needed.

This change is indicative of how archaic the Senate still is in many ways, that this is the first Senator to ever have a baby while serving and necessitate this rule change. While it is getting better, the body is still dominated by old, white men and that is reflected in how these kind of policies are not already in place, something that has been in place in most other workplaces for a long time. Hopefully this is a start of a larger process to modernize the Senate a bit more and make it easier for more different people to serve.