President Obama will deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 12, House Speaker John A. Boehner said Friday.
Mr. Boehner extended the official invitation in a letter asking Mr. Obama to lay out plans for the “immense challenges” facing the country.
“This will require a willingness to seek common ground as well as presidential leadership. For that reason, the Congress and the nation would welcome an opportunity to hear your plan and specific solutions for addressing America’s great challenges,” Mr. Boehner said.
The speech would come just after the president is required to deliver his budget to Congress, and in the middle of negotiations over both the federal government’s borrowing limit and looming automatic spending cuts, both of which need to be solved by the end of February.
Mr. Obama will deliver an inaugural address several weeks earlier, on Jan. 21. Second-term inaugural addresses are usually broader thematic speeches, while State of the Union addresses are more policy-centered.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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