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Congress has had a lot going on lately, what with multiple government shutdown deadlines to worry about, military aid for Ukraine and Israel up in the air, and a contempt of Congress hearing on Hunter Biden. In the midst of all that, you might have easily missed that the House GOP also decided to quietly buy a bunch of new congressional lapel pins to the tune of $40,000.
Every two years, all 435 members of the House get new congressional pins, and they are just as much a security measure—since 1975, the U.S. Capitol Police have been identifying members by those pins—as they are a memento of their time on Capitol Hill.
Even though House lawmakers just got pins last year, they received new ones on Jan. 10—and Democrats were quick to publicly call out Republicans for it. “Today we’re getting a new pin, half way through the term because the House GOP didn’t like the color. Big congrats to them on their first tangible accomplishment of the 118th,” Illinois Rep. Sean Casten wrote on social media.
Why change the pins now? The original pins for the 118th Congress were bright green, and some members were not particularly fond of them as a fashion statement. “There’s been this low-level grumbling [that] people didn’t like the color,” Casten told HuffPost. (Apparently they didn’t appreciate House Administration Committee chairman Bryan Steil’s creative vision—he’s responsible for picking them out). Rep. Deborah Ross also told Semafor that some congresswomen had also been complaining that the bale of the pin was too small, which made it difficult to wear as a pendant.
So why do lawmakers have these pins in the first place? They allow members of Congress to “fast-track through security,” California Rep. Sam Farr told Roll Call back in 2005. The pins are viewed as a “token symbolic of their public service,” he said. “Whether they wear them or not, they’re proud to be entitled to have one.”
Given that there are 435 members of the House, 100 senators, and thousands of staff members, it’s a tall order keeping track of everyone coming in and out of the Capitol. “Each election cycle brings 30 or 40 (or even 87) new faces to the floor and the pins help the veterans and the freshman get acquainted,” Daniel Engber explained in Slate back in 2006.
Congressional pins allow Capitol Police to quickly identify who is who—each chamber gets its own unique pin design. Typically only people who aren’t members of Congress use badges to get through security.
Lawmakers end up collecting them as the years go by and pass them forward to their children or other family members, sometimes even framing them or turning them into cufflinks or other forms of jewelry.
In December last year, according to HuffPost, House Sergeant at Arms William McFarland sent a letter to all House members announcing that new pins were coming in January. Some Democrats were confused about the sudden change, with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking a staffer, who grabbed her pin for her, “Why did they change them?”
So how do the new pins look? House members will be swapping the bold green for a deep navy blue pin with a thicker gold border. All congressional pins showcase the Great Seal of the United States—an eagle with its wing spread wide holding a set of arrows in one claw and an olive branch in the other.
It can be hard to please over 400 lawmakers. Back in 2003–04 during the 108th Congress, the congressional pin was designed with red, white, and blue colors for the first time in House history. That’s because it was shortly after the 9/11 attacks and featuring patriotic colors felt appropriate. Yet some members felt it looked “like a pin to get into Disneyland,” said Farr to Roll Call.
So why did 435 new pins cost $40,000—more than $90 a pop? Former House Administration chairman Bob Ney said it’s a “painstaking” design process, since the pin will be worn by every single member of Congress and has to account for different clothing styles for men and women. The entire process takes about six months to finalize, with prototypes created to test out prospective designs.
That price tag didn’t sit so well with Democrats as the chamber was struggling to come to a budget agreement. “I don’t know—maybe we do it every time we get a new speaker,” Casten told HuffPost last week. “We could have another one soon!”
In the end, Congress came to an agreement to fund the government for a couple months—but we’ll get to do this all over again in March!
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