Biden’s speech to Congress will be decided by Capitol doctor: Pelosi

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday she was awaiting advice from the Capitol doctor and the Sergeant-at-Arms before inviting President Biden to deliver his first speech at a joint session of Congress.

The California Democrat was asked about the timing of Biden’s initial speech to Congress at his weekly press conference.

“It will be soon I hope,” Pelosi told reporters.

Part of the decision, she says, rests with Dr. Brian Monahan, the current attending physician of Congress, and Major-General William Walker, the House’s new Sergeant-at-Arms.

They will decide how the speech can be held safely amid the coronavirus pandemic and how many people might attend, Pelosi said.

“We will await the opinion of the doctor of the Capitol, of the sergeant-at-arms, on the number of people which can be accommodated”, she declared.

“But whatever the number,” Pelosi added, “we’ll be ready whenever the president is ready to come. We are going to issue this invitation, which is the tradition.

Presidents typically deliver the speech in the first few weeks after entering the White House, but it is not a “State of the Union” speech, which comes in the second year of the term. .

Biden, however, still hasn’t set a date for the address. The date is chosen in coordination with the White House, Pelosi said.

She noted that this would be the first joint address to Congress since the coronavirus emerged, as former President Donald Trump’s last State of the Union was last February, before the pandemic hit.

Pelosi also reminded reporters how she dramatically tore up a copy of Trump’s SOTU speech at the end of that speech.