With the partial shutdown in its fourth week, at least two fall traditions on Capitol Hill are now canceled or postponed — the Halloween dog parade hosted by North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis and the Congressional Football Game.
Per a spokesperson for the Congressional Football Game, the charity event has been moved to next year and will be played on March 19 at Nationals Park.
The game was originally scheduled for Nov. 4. Usually held in the fall, the event features a bipartisan team of members of Congress and former NFL players facing off against a team of Capitol Police officers. It raises money for the U.S. Capitol Police Memorial Fund, A Advantage 4 Kids, Our Military Kids and the Boys & Girls Club of America.
The dog parade, known as the “Bipawtisan Howl-o-ween Dog Parade,” usually takes place in the Hart Senate Office Building on Halloween.
Tillis told reporters this week that the event was canceled, and his office circulated a graphic saying it was “shut down by the shutdown.”
The costume parade started as a small gathering in a Senate hallway several years ago, but changed locations as the crowd became too big.
“All of a sudden I go out, and it’s like 50 dogs and 100 people,” Tillis said in 2021. “Well, the Capitol Police came around, and they thought it was like some sort of spontaneous, unauthorized protest — oopsie.”
The event was slated to be Tillis’ last; he’s not running for reelection, and the parade typically takes a pause during election years. Tillis also had to skip the parade in 2023 after coming down with COVID-19 and delegating hosting duties to former Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah.
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