All 535 members of Congress will be able to attend President Biden’s March 1 State of the Union address, but won’t be allowed to bring guests and will also have to wear KN95 or N95 masks the whole time, according to new guidance from the legislative branch’s attending physician.
Would-be attendees will also have to submit a negative COVID-19 test within 24 hours of the event, per a memo from Dr. Brian Monahan.
Members of Congress and other attendees are also “strongly recommended” to have gotten their COVID-19 booster shot before Feb. 15 –and will be required to use a waterless “hand cleanser” upon entering the House chamber and avoid physical contact with other people.
Attendees will be scattered across the House floor and the viewing galleries, limiting the audience to about 50 percent of the usual in-person State of the Union crowd of 1,100.
In April of last year, Biden gave an address to a joint session of Congress at which the number of attendees was capped at 200.
Next month’s speech will be Biden’s first State of the Union address and the latest the spectacle has been held in the modern era.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited the president to deliver the address last month, praising him for his “bold vision and patriotic leadership which have guided America out of crisis and into an era of great progress.”
Prior to this year, the latest date for a State of the Union address was for the one delivered by Ronald Reagan on Feb. 6, 1985. Former President Donald Trump’s last two addresses took place on Feb. 5, 2019, and Feb. 4, 2020, shortly before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since July, Pelosi (D-Calif.) has required members to wear masks in the chamber except when speaking during debate. The Senate has no such requirement.
House leadership has enforced the rule by issuing fines to their colleagues — most of them vocal Republicans — who refuse to wear a mask. Penalties include a fine of $500 for a first offense and $2,500 for every offense after that.
As of December, Georgia Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Andrew Clyde had incurred more than $100,000 combined in fines, according to the New York Times.
Members of Congress are not required to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but have been encouraged to do so by leaders of both parties.
