State of the Union address: Information from Answers.com Mobile

State of the Union address

The State of the Union address is the speech the President makes to a joint session of Congress at the beginning of the legislative session. This address is in accordance with Article 2, Section 3, of the Constitution, which provides that the President shall “from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union.” Since 1945 the speech has been known as the State of the Union address.

In writing or in person

Presidents George Washington and John Adams gave their State of the Union messages in person. But to President Thomas Jefferson the practice too closely resembled the British monarch's annual address to the houses of Parliament and was therefore too regal for his tastes. Jefferson also lisped and disliked public speaking. So he sent his message in writing to be read aloud to Congress by a clerk. This practice continued for the rest of the 19th century and had the effect of diminishing the President's role in setting the legislative agenda. In 1893 a journalist observed that although the President's annual message was “regularly and respectfully submitted to the proper committees for consideration, it is very rare that any suggestion made by the Executive has any practical result.”

Then in 1913 President Woodrow Wilson dramatically went to Congress to deliver his State of the Union message in person. This act symbolized Wilson's belief that Presidents should take a more active role in proposing and promoting legislation. Calling for quick passage of a banking bill, he also found it an “urgent necessity” for Congress to pass bills on agriculture, railroads, and mine safety. Wilson's discussion of Presidential priorities deeply offended many constitutional lawyers, who believed that the President should leave national priorities to Congress. Wilson also addressed Congress in person on a tariff act, reminding the lawmakers that he was “a person, not a mere department of government, hailing Congress from some isolated island of jealous power … a human being trying to cooperate with other human beings in a common service.”

All Presidents since Wilson have continued his practice of addressing Congress in person to build support for their programs. The first message to be broadcast on the radio was delivered by Calvin Coolidge in 1923. It aided his attempt to secure the Republican nomination for President the following year. Franklin Roosevelt announced much of his New Deal program in his State of the Union addresses, which were also broadcast on radio. Harry Truman presented his entire Fair Deal program of civil rights, housing, and medical care in his addresses.

President Dwight Eisenhower's 1953 State of the Union address was the first to be televised. By the 1960s the address was switched to prime-time viewing hours in the evening to attract the maximum audience. Richard Nixon not only gave a State of the Union address but followed it up in 1971 with a State of the World address outlining his vision of U.S. foreign policy. No President since has given two such speeches to Congress.

Preparation of the State of the Union address takes months and is itself part of the process of government decision making about public policy. The President asks department secretaries and outside experts for ideas about new programs. Cabinet councils and Presidential advisory agencies help the President sift through these ideas and determine priorities. The President then calls on speech writers and political advisers in the White House Office to help prepare drafts of the speech.

Determining what goes into the President's speech is the first step in the struggle to turn ideas into new government programs. As Nixon's speech writer Bryce Harlow put it, each cabinet secretary was “demanding that more space be given to their problems, to which I had to respond that the President says he wants this document kept shorter than a two-hour speech.” A few weeks before the speech is to be delivered, the White House may leak parts of it to reporters as a “trial balloon.” If public reaction, as gauged by the President's pollsters, is favorable, the proposals will remain in the President's speech, but controversial items might be dropped.

A ceremonial occasion

Much ceremony accompanies the State of the Union message. Members of the Senate march in procession the length of the Capitol from the Senate to the larger House chamber. Members of the cabinet and the Supreme Court take seats in the front rows of the chamber, and honored guests fill the galleries. The House doorkeeper loudly announces: “Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States,” and members rise for a standing ovation. Unlike the British Parliament, whose members listen in respectful silence to their monarch's annual address, members of Congress punctuate a President's message with applause. Members from the President's party heartily cheer his proposals, while members of the opposition party remain quietly restrained. Modern Presidents have taken the opportunity to talk beyond Congress, to address the nation as a whole as a means of stimulating public support for their programs in the legislative battles that lie ahead.

Sources

Barbara Hinckley, The Symbolic Presidency (New York: Routledge, Chapman & Hall, 1990).
Jeffrey Tulis, The Rhetorical Presidency (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987)