Nancy Pelosi has every right to postpone Trump’s State of the Union – Washington Examiner

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has finally done it: She has postponed the State of the Union address until after the government reopens.

The speaker announced in a letter Wednesday that “the House of Representatives will not consider a concurrent resolution authorizing the President’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber until government has opened.” The address is delivered from the House chamber at the invitation of Congress.

Though near-unheard-of, the speaker is well within her rights to cancel or postpone the speech indefinitely, Michael Steel, former press secretary to former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told the Washington Examiner.

It’s also a surprisingly simple thing for the speaker to uninvite the president. All she must do is simply say so. There’s nothing more to it than that. It’s “the Speaker’s call to extend (or rescind) the invitation,” said Steel.

Pelosi’s announcement comes almost immediately after the White House sent her office a letter Wednesday afternoon informing her of the president’s intent to deliver his address from the House chamber on Jan. 29.

“I will be honoring your invitation, and fulfilling my Constitutional duty, to deliver important information to the people and Congress of the United States of America regarding the State of our Union,” the letter reads.

It adds, “I look forward to seeing you on the evening on January 29th in the Chamber of the House of Representatives. It would be so very sad for our Country if the State of the Union were not delivered on time, on schedule, and very importantly, on location!”

This all starts with Pelosi’s proposal last week that the State of the Union address be postponed until after the shutdown has ended.

“The U.S. Secret Service was designated as the lead federal agency responsible for coordinating, planning, exercising, and implementing security for National Special Security Events by Public Law 106-544, December 19, 2000. However, both the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security have not been funded for 26 days now — with critical departments hamstrung by furloughs,” the speaker’s letter reads.

It added, “Sadly, given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress on January 29th.”

However, both the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security have disputed the speaker’s suggestion that they’ve been hobbled by the shutdown.

“The Department of Homeland Security and the US Secret Service are fully prepared to support and secure the State of the Union. We thank the Service for their mission focus and dedication and for all they do each day to secure our homeland,” DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement released hours after Pelosi first pitched her proposal to the White House.

A Secret Service official also told NBC News last week that Pelosi’s supposed safety concerns are unfounded.

“It’s a no-fail mission,” the official told NBC News’ Pete Williams, adding that the “intelligence and protection functions” are “fully staffed” even though they are not being paid. “We’ve been planning for this for months, as we always do. It didn’t start up 29 days ago.”

Of course, it doesn’t take a Secret Service official’s remarks to see that postponing the president’s speech is about politics and not at all about safety concerns. Remember: Pelosi originally extended her State of the Union invitation to Trump on Jan. 3 — a full 12 days into the shutdown.

Trump responded last week to the speaker’s proposal by grounding a congressional delegation (including Pelosi) tour of Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan, citing the shutdown and the need to negotiate reopening the government as the reason why.

It’s possible Trump still shows up to the House on Jan. 29, and it is entirely possible Pelosi cuts the microphones and turns off the lights. She can even instruct the sergeant-at-arms to bar the door.

But it won’t come to all that — will it?

Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/nancy-pelosi-has-every-right-to-postpone-trumps-state-of-the-union

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