WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden has been invited to make his first State of the Union address on March 1 by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

In a letter to Biden, Pelosi wrote, "This last year has been historic: with the life-saving American Rescue Plan, once-in-a-generation Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and, soon, the genuinely transformational Build Back Better Act."  "In that spirit," Pelosi wrote, "I am writing to invite you to speak before a Joint Session of Congress on Tuesday, March 1 to discuss your vision of the State of the Union."

Last April, Biden delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress in which he outlined his administration's major legislative priorities and lauded his accomplishments in his first nearly 100 days in office. However, this will be his first formal State of the Union address, in which the president traditionally discusses the previous year's accomplishments as well as the agenda for the next year.

Biden has approved a USD1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief programme and a USD1 trillion infrastructure investment plan in the last year. However, his Build Back Better (BBB) plan, a USD2 trillion social spending and climate bill, has run into serious opposition in the Senate.

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