All of a sudden, here it is the end of February and there is no State of the Union (SOTU) address scheduled for President Biden. That’s odd because last month, Biden promised what sounds exactly like a SOTU:
"Next month, in my first appearance before a joint session of Congress, I will lay out my 'Build Back Better' recovery plan," he said. "It will make historic investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, innovation, and research and development in clean energy."
AP and PBS both got wind that the address was to be given on February 23 in and said so in posts that are now deep-sixed:
But on February 16, Jen Psaki denied such a plan in a press conference:
[W]hen asked about the timing, his press secretary Jen Psaki said there had never been a plan for him to address a joint session this month.
"We don't know where the Feb. 23 date came from. It's a great mystery,” she said during the regular daily briefing.
“I've not Nancy Drewed that one out today, but it was never planned to be in February, and we don't have a date for a joint session at this point," Psaki said, comparing herself to the popular character in a series of children's books who solves mysteries.
Of course, it is only tradition, that a president address a joint session of Congress early in the year to fulfill the constitutional requirement (Article II, Section 3) that a POTUS “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….”