Babies to be allowed on US Senate floor

[Fambo Number Mive]

in a rare move, the Senate on Wednesday night voted to change longstanding rules to allow newborns -- for the first time -- onto the Senate floor during votes.

The rule change, voted through by unanimous consent, was done to accommodate senators with newborn babies, allowing them now to be able to bring a child under 1 year old onto the Senate floor and breastfeed them during votes.
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who gave birth this month to her second child, becoming the first US Senator to do so while in office, spearheaded the push for the rule change and applauded her fellow lawmakers who she says helped to "bring the Senate into the 21st Century by recognizing that sometimes new parents also have responsibilities at work."


"By ensuring that no Senator will be prevented from performing their constitutional responsibilities simply because they have a young child, the Senate is leading by example and sending the important message that working parents everywhere deserve family-friendly workplace policies," Duckworth said in a statement after the vote.

Duckworth decided to take her maternity leave in Washington, DC, rather than in Illinois, to be able to be on hand and available to cast her vote in the Senate if needed. But she expressed concern about the complex and strict Senate rules, which might impact her ability to do so while caring for -- and breastfeeding -- her newborn.

There are a whole host of Senate rules that would make voting difficult for a senator while caring for her baby -- being unable to hand the baby off to a staffer, being unable to bring a child onto the floor and being unable to vote via proxy...

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/18/politics/tammy-duckworth-senate-baby-rules/index.html

Should the same happen in the House of Commons? I think there is a nursery there but not sure if being able to take babies into the actual chamber would help. There is a furious debate about this on Facebook.

Personally I think it is ok but if they start crying they need to be taken out fast. What about a special room off the Senate where crying babies can be taken?

Any Trump/crying babies jokes?

[idunnosomename]

I hate babies

[Neville Chamberlain]

Should the same happen in the House of Commons?

It already does - look at Ian Duncan Smith lololol :-)

[Blumf]

Any Trump/crying babies jokes?

[ASFTSN]

I don't really give a shit either way, but we I think the situations this could lead to proves we have moved beyond the Morrisian at this point.

[madhair60]

haha werent they already wayyyy hahaha

[hedgehog90]

if they start crying they need to be taken out fast.

[biggytitbo]

Literally on the floor? Won't they get in the way?

[Kelvin]

In ten years time, the Senate floor will just be caked in babies. Crawling, bawling, tipping onto their chubby little faces. Every time a senator wants to speak, three staffers will need to clear a path with thick brooms, while a rifleman picks off the leaders.

One day, a female senator will trip on a rattle and tumble off the shrinking path into the snotty, shifting mass. Her blouse torn asunder. Her flopping breasts exposed. People shout in horror as an ocean of greedy babes washes over her, undulating, pulsing. The sound of sucking. Three, maybe four gunshots. A single red shoe is pushed to the surface. Then it turns to solemn silence as the babies part with one mind to reveal a drained and dessicated husk where once there was a woman.

The crane is lowered to collect her, but the body is so dry, it snaps.

[Paul Calf]

/\ Kelvin is a vastly underrated poster.

[Dr Syntax Head]

Kelvin. That was gold.

[NoSleep]

haha werent they already wayyyy hahaha

Isn't a giant baby now in charge?

[Blue Jam]

I got into an argument with someone about this after they called me a misogynist for suggesting that letting people take their babies to work might be anything other than a great idea and an incredibly empowering thing for women (I guess they forget the dads altogether...)

My workplace would actually be too dangerous to bring children into, but that didn't stop one of my colleagues trying once- her babysitter cancelled and she didn't want to use up annual leave to go home and look after her son. I still can't believe she thought that losing half a day of annual leave would be preferable to letting her own flesh and blood run around a lab with its toxic chemicals, bottles of acid and flasks of liquid nitrogen.

I suspect the people who will be most opposed to this will actually be parents. After the snow had gone all the parents at my workplace couldn't stop going on about how relieved they were to be back at work with their kids back at school, and how glad they were not to be watching any more Peppa fucking Pig...

[Replies From View]

As long as the babies are allowed to endlessly urinate everywhere I can't complain about this.

[Pijlstaart]

Only place I've worked that has stopped kids coming in had a big metal turnstile and a fuck-off jobsworth receptionist who looked like death incarnate. Loved that receptionist, but even then one of my coworkers managed to sneak in his newborn daughter after hours and we all got to coo at it as it flopped about in that inimitable vitamin-less northern way.

Current place has 2 or 3 perennial kids, there's a spousal hire couple who have family dinner in the break room and make you feel like you're trespassing. One of the kids looked at my dinner once, a frozen pizza I'd defrosted and rolled up into a burrito, and asked it's mother if it could have some. Horrid. Old workplace was the worst though, shrieking every day. Guy who I sat next to was loaded with kids, let his eldest watch peppa pig episodes without headphones next to me. Spoiler alert! Had no idea series 5 was coming out, so I was completely thrown off. Forced out of my desk, bleating in the foyer, and that'll be the case for poor sweet mitch mcconnell too, he'll find his chair covered in peppa pig backpacks and have to mill about on the steps of congress until they've all gone. Nastiness.

[biggytitbo]

You always get the new mother who returns to the office to parade her baby around like it is a prize winning parsnip. I don't know why they bother, they always look the same.

[Replies From View]

You always get the new mother who returns to the office to parade her baby around like it is a prize winning parsnip. I don't know why they bother, they always look the same.

Maybe if parsnips had less forgettable faces they wouldn't think we needed the reminder.