Maile Pearl Bowlsbey, all of ten days old, made a grand entrance to the U.S. Senate today with her mother, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who happens to work there.

From The Washington Post:

  • Maile, born April 9, became the first child permitted on the floor of the Senate under a rules change that allows children up to age 1 to accompany their parents to votes.
  • Duckworth (D-Ill.) and her colleagues had pushed for flexibility so that members of the upper chamber — particularly women — who have children while in office can remain close to them while they’re infants.

Allowing a baby on the Senate floor was more difficult than you think.  From The New York Times:

  • Maile’s arrival was the product of several months of behind-the-scenes negotiation in the hidebound Senate, whose rules until Wednesday barred children from coming onto the Senate floor.
  • A few months after Ms. Duckworth announced she was pregnant, she asked Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the senior Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, to help her engineer a rule change, necessary because senators are required to vote in person.