President Biden will give the first State of the Union address of his presidency on Tuesday, March 1, at 9:00 pm ET before a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The president is expected to speak about the COVID-19 pandemic, his domestic policy agenda – including his nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court – and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
NLIHC will closely monitor and analyze the State of the Union for insights into President Biden’s strategy for advancing pieces of the “Build Back Better Act,” a broad economic recovery package that includes significant investments in the HoUSed campaign’s top priorities: $25 billion to expand rental assistance to more than 300,000 households; $65 billion to preserve public housing for its 2.5 million residents; and $15 billion for the national Housing Trust Fund to build and preserve over 150,000 affordable, accessible homes for households with the lowest incomes.
Negotiations over the Build Back Better Act have largely stalled since Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced in mid-December his opposition to the economic recovery package as it was currently written. The timeline for restarting negotiations has been delayed, and many advocates do not expect progress on the legislation until later this year. While President Biden has urged Congress to enact a scaled-back version, it is unclear which pieces of the comprehensive bill – if any – could garner the support of all Senate Democrats.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds will give the Republican party’s response to the speech. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) will give a response on behalf of the Working Families Party.