Biden set to deliver annual State of Union address on Feb. 7
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[January 14, 2023]
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden is set to deliver his annual
State of the Union address to the U.S. Congress on Feb. 7, venturing
into the House of Representatives chamber following its takeover by
Republicans who have vowed to challenge his legislative agenda and mount
multiple investigations of him and his administration.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Friday extended the invitation, which
promptly was accepted by the White House.
"The American people sent us to Washington to deliver a new direction
for the country, to find common ground and to debate their priorities,"
McCarthy wrote in a letter to Biden.
The annual address offers the Democratic president an opportunity to lay
out his legislative goals midway through his four-year term and possibly
tease out broader themes for an expected 2024 re-election bid.
It also gives Biden a national audience and thus an opportunity to shore
up support among Democrats, some of whom are concerned about his age and
other issues. Biden turned 80 in November and, if re-elected, would be
82 at the start of a second term.
The announcement of the speech came a day after U.S. Attorney General
Merrick Garland announced the appointment of a special counsel to
investigate Biden's handling of classified documents.
Biden's second State of the Union address will be held, as is the
custom, in the House chamber, where Republicans last week took control
after winning a slim majority in November's midterm elections. The new
political landscape will make it more difficult for Biden to secure
bipartisan deals on legislation that he likely will call for in his
speech. Still, issues such as combating the opioid epidemic could draw
broad support.
Biden also is likely to tout his administration's accomplishments over
the past year including enactment of an infrastructure bill and the
Inflation Reduction Act, with its climate change and prescription drug
elements.
Biden will face a rambunctious and splintered gathering of Republican
lawmakers eager to put their conservative mark on U.S. policy following
four consecutive years of Democratic control of the House. With a
razor-thin majority and intraparty divisions, Republicans had a
historically difficult time electing a speaker and are expected to
continue to struggle to unite their far-right and more moderate members
on legislation.
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U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the
State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the
U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, U.S, March 1, 2022. Saul Loeb/Pool
via REUTERS
Nonetheless, the House under McCarthy's leadership is expected to
launch a major budget-cutting initiative with a particular eye
toward reining in the cost of the Social Security and Medicare
retirement and healthcare programs. House Republicans also are
poised to pursue various investigations involving the president, his
family and administration.
Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, also a Democrat,
have pledged to stop such legislation if passed by the House, as
well as measures to restrict abortions nationwide.
Other matters that Congress could address in 2023 include
legislation expected to be needed midyear to raise the federal
government's borrowing authority, or debt limit. And then there are
new gun control steps that Democrats hope would build on a modest
bipartisan law enacted last year. Both parties also aim to address
immigration policy following decades of failed attempts.
Conservative House Republicans are showcasing legislation to undo
beefed-up funding for the Internal Revenue Service so that it can
hire more agents to clamp down on wealthy tax cheats.
Biden is fresh off a trip to the U.S.-Mexican border, where the
influx of immigrants has Republicans eager to legislate tougher
security measures. Some congressional Democrats have expressed a
willingness to trade new border controls for granting a pathway to
citizenship for certain people brought illegally into the United
States when they were minors.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; additional reporting by Jeff Mason and
Trevor Hunnicutt; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Will Dunham)
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