Wednesday, January 23, 2019

State of exclusion: Does Trump need Pelosi's permission to speak in the House?


I confess that I dislike the State of the Union address. It was intended to be a report given to Congress by the president to inform them of, well, the state of the union.

That sounds like a great idea—that the three branches of government should communicate—but it’s more than a great idea. It’s a constitutional requirement.

Constitutional basis
The president “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” U.S. Const. art. II, § 3, cl. 1.

You’ll notice right away that “from time to time” is vague, and this nonspecific requirement to give “Information” is a long way from what the speech has become: An annual display of clichéd rhetoric, pure grandstanding. Members of the president’s party rise to their feet to give a hearty standing ovation after each trite phrase, while members of the opposing party sit stonily, arms crossed and lips pursed. No matter who the president may be, he offers little new or necessary “Information.”

To be honest, I don’t watch it, and neither do most Americans.

The king’s speech
While George Washington gave at least one such report in speech form, Thomas Jefferson strongly objected to this practice because it resembled an address given by a king from his throne. For this reason, most presidents didn’t give a speech at all but sent a written report to Congress, usually at the end of the calendar year.

President Woodrow Wilson more or less started the modern speech tradition, which really took off under FDR. At that time, it came to resemble the yearly display before both houses of Congress that we see now. It was broadcast on radio, and then television and thereby became to be seen as an address to the American people rather than a report to Congress.

It’s still a report to Congress, however. We tend to forget that, but President Trump finds himself reminded of it now.

House rules
When anyone, including the president, wishes to address a joint session of Congress, he or she must be invited. If the speech is to be given in the House chamber, the Speaker of the House issues the invitation. The Speaker of the House, of course, is Nancy Pelosi, who issued this invitation to Trump several weeks ago.

She has not formally rescinded the invitation, but she has written to Trump to inform him that she does not want him to give the speech while the federal government is shut down.

Trump wrote to Pelosi that he planned to give the speech in the House chamber anyway, or at least somewhere in the Capitol building, despite her wishes.

Can he do this? While Trump could physically burst into the House chambers and start speaking, it wouldn’t be an official report. In order for official remarks to be delivered in the House chamber, the House must be in session, and that is up to Pelosi’s discretion.

Further, Pelosi could have the lights and microphones in the House chamber turned off, making it impossible for Trump to have his speech broadcast (unless someone used a camera phone, at which point Pelosi could rebuke him). The speech still wouldn’t be officially recognized.

Apparently, someone has informed Trump of this, and at the time I wrote this, he had backed down.

Alternative locations
There is no requirement that the address be given in the House chamber.

One possible alternative is the Senate chamber. In fact, when it was given as a speech, the State of the Union was always held in the Senate chamber until the capital was moved from Philadelphia to D.C. in 1801.

Trump could also speak from any other location, including the White House.

Various GOP legislators have offered venues in their home states, from the SuperDome in New Orleans to the state capitol building in more than one state. Several lawmakers suggested he deliver the address at the Mexican border.

While all of these alternatives are possible, they wouldn’t really be an address to Congress, however, so it is unclear which location if any Trump will choose.

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