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The floor of the United States House of Representatives will remain a boring chapeau-free waste land. Representative-elect Frederica Wilson will give up on her erstwhile fight to get Speaker-elect John Boehner to end a ban on hats while the body is in session.
Wilson, who is more passionate about getting things in DC for her Miami-Dade constituents than her hat collection, sensed that the issue was garnering too much attention.
“I really don’t want to be distracted from what I’ve been elected to Congress to accomplish,” Wilson tells Washington Post style writer Robin Givens. “The media has taken over, and it’s almost as if I was going to Congress to wear hats.”
Wilson is known for her vast hat collection and wore them during her terms in both houses of the Florida legislature without incident. Though a rule in the U.S. House dating back to the 1800’s forbids members from wearing hats while the body is in session. Wilson called the rule sexist and noted that it dated from a time when woman were not allowed to be representatives (or even vote).
