Because the address is made to a joint session of Congress, the House and Senate must each pass a resolution setting a date and time for the joint session. Then, a formal invitation is made by the Speaker of the House to the President typically several weeks before the appointed date.
Has this not happened yet? If not, that would make this by far the latest such speech in recent history, and the media blackout is super weird.
Watch them hastily put one together now that we're talking about it :P
“We won’t be doing any of that until we pass our COVID bill. That’s the first order of business,” said the speaker, who is the lawmaker responsible for officially inviting the president.
Actual governing instead of bread and circuses ... what a refreshing change!
From wikipedia:
It's "unofficial" because the first address to the joint session of congress is not considered a "true" state of the union address.
Note how Obama and Trump's 2009 and 2017 addresses aren't listed on the official page.
What IS strange is this:
Has this not happened yet? If not, that would make this by far the latest such speech in recent history, and the media blackout is super weird.
Watch them hastily put one together now that we're talking about it :P
Actual governing instead of bread and circuses ... what a refreshing change!