President Joe Biden has accepted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s invitation to deliver the 2023 State of the Union address on Tuesday, Feb. 7, the White House confirmed on Friday.
The newly minted House speaker wrote a letter to President Biden inviting him to address a Joint Session of Congress to “report on the state of the union” and “inform our efforts to address the priorities of the American people.”
“The new year brings with it a new Congress, and with it, a responsibility to work towards an economy that is strong, a nation that is safe, a future that is built on freedom, and a government that is accountable,” McCarthy wrote. “The American people sent us to Washington to deliver a new direction for the country, to find common ground, and to debate their priorities.”
The address will be Biden’s first to a divided Congress after two years of Democratic control of both chambers. Republicans retook the House in last year’s midterms and assumed the majority earlier this month, while Democrats increased their majority in the Senate by one seat.
Shortly after the letter was released, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed Biden’s attendance at a briefing Friday: “We have received Speaker McCarthy’s kind invitation and the president has accepted it and looks forward to delivering the State of the Union address.”
“The President is grateful for and accepts Speaker McCarthy’s prompt invitation to address the peoples’ representatives in Congress,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement later Friday. “He looks forward to speaking with Republicans, Democrats, and the country about how we can work together to continue building an economy that works from the bottom up and the middle out, keep boosting our competitiveness in the world, keep the American people safe, and bring the country together.”
The speech, which is customarily held in the House of Representatives chamber at the U.S. Capitol, will give President Biden the opportunity to lay out his agenda items for the next two years of his term in office. He is also likely to tout some of the accomplishments of his first two years in office, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats’ health care and climate change bill, and his COVID-19 relief bill, the American Rescue Plan.
The speech will also, notably, be the first since 2019 where Nancy Pelosi will not take her customary place behind the president as he delivers his address. Pelosi stepped down from her role in House Democratic leadership shortly after last year’s midterms.
This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.
