Trump invited to address US Congress on February 28

President Donald Trump smiles during a reception with Congressional leaders, including Sen
AFP

Washington (AFP) – US House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday invited President Donald Trump to address a joint session of Congress late next month, an invitation in keeping with Washington tradition.

“It is my honor to invite you to address a joint session of Congress on February 28, 2017, in the hall of the House of Representatives,” Ryan wrote in a letter to the president which the speaker published on his Twitter feed.

“This address will give the people and their representatives the chance to hear directly from you about your agenda to tackle the critical challenges we face at home and abroad.”

The White House and both chambers of Congress are now controlled by Republicans.

Trump will come to Congress as a change agent, but he has entered the White House with poor national approval ratings.

He may already have some repair work to do with the leadership and rank and file of his own Republican Party, after he offered a searing repudiation of the Washington establishment in his inauguration speech.

“The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country,” Trump told Americans in his speech. “Their victories have not been your victories.”

Trump is likely to address several objectives he hopes to accomplish in his first 100 days in office, notably a repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, the health reforms implemented by his predecessor Barack Obama.

But the complex issue already appears to have set Trump on course for a possible clash with Republicans.

Before his swearing-in, Trump told The Washington Post that he wants the replacement to provide “insurance for everybody,” a proposal that usually has been opposed by his party.

Republicans in recent weeks have sought to shift the language to include a call to provide everyone with “access” to health care.

– Soliciting advice –

Ryan’s formal invitation fulfills a tradition that provides an incoming president with the opportunity to address Congress within weeks of taking office.

A joint session of Congress is usually attended by all 100 US senators and 435 representatives.

Trump meanwhile invited the four congressional leaders — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, Ryan and leading House Democrat Nancy Pelosi — to the White House later Tuesday to discuss filling the vacancy on the US Supreme Court.

“I appreciate the president soliciting our advice on this important matter,” McConnell told the Senate.

Trump said Tuesday he expected to announce his nominee “sometime next week.”

Schumer has taken a hard stand on the high court, after Republicans stonewalled Obama’s nominee for the bench, appellate Judge Merrick Garland, early last year following the death of conservative justice Antonin Scalia.

“It’s hard for me to imagine a nominee that Donald Trump would choose that would get Republican support that we could support,” Schumer told MSNBC this month.

Supreme Court nominees require a 60-vote majority for confirmation in the 100-seat Senate. Republicans hold 52 seats, so any nominee would need support from at least eight Democrats.

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