Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) officially invited President Donald Trump to deliver the State of the Union address in the House Chamber next week.
On Monday, Pelosi issued a letter to Trump suggesting the president reschedule the speech to February 5, 2019 after the partial government shutdown resulted in the postponement of a previously-planned date for the address.
"When I wrote to you on January 23rd, I stated that we should work together to find a mutually agreeable date when government has reopened to schedule this year's State of the Union address," Pelosi wrote in the letter. "In our conversation today, we agreed on February 5th. Therefore, I invite you to deliver your State of the Union address before a Joint Session of Congress on February 5, 2019 in the House Chamber."
Later on Monday, Trump accepted Pelosi's invitation.
"It's my great honor to accept," he wrote, according to CNN. "We have a great story to tell and yet, great goals to achieve!"
But before Trump can deliver the address, the House and Senate must first pass a resolution to officially invite the president to speak.
NEWS: Speaker Pelosi has invited President Trump to give #SOTU address on February 5, 2019 in the House Chamber. pic.twitter.com/5C4m0b4gAc
— Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) January 28, 2019
During the longest shutdown in U.S, history, which started in December and lasted 35 days, the State of the Union address became a tense topic in the negotiations between Trump and congressional Democrats. On January 3, Pelosi originally invited Trump to perform the speech on Tuesday, January 29, but later requested the president to postpone the address as the partial government shutdown dragged on with no resolution in sight.
Agreeing to reschedule the speech until after the shutdown, Trump also responded to Pelosi's move by refusing her use of a military vehicle for an overseas trip.
On Friday, Trump announced his backing for a three-week continuing resolution to reopen the roughly 25 percent of government departments that were affected by the shutdown. Although the stop-gap measure will enable the 800,000 federal staffers, who went unpaid during the shutdown, back pay, it did not include any funding provisions for the border wall that the president promised his base during his campaign trail.
