Shutdown drama reaches the State of the Union address
WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday effectively delayed President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, citing security concerns amid a nearly month-old partial government shutdown, while underscoring the political and policy paralysis behind it.
Pelosi’s decision appeared to catch the White House flat-footed – by late in the day it had not responded to her letter of that morning. The development brought into sharper relief the partisanship that’s not only at the root of the current impasse over government funding but is deepening as a result of it, just weeks into Trump’s power-sharing with a Democratic-controlled House.
With both Trump and Democrats responsive to their most vocal supporters, who oppose compromise, one of Washington’s most venerable traditions – the president’s annual address to a joint session of Congress, the Supreme Court and the diplomatic corps – became a casualty. Laws too: The administration has disregarded those governing shutdowns, and ordered tens of thousands of unpaid employees back to work based on largely political calculations.
“In these kinds of congressional-white House dealings, there are certain parameters that people are used to, and we’re sort of running outside the lines here,” said John Lawrence, a former chief of staff to Pelosi who experienced a number of federal shutdowns during four decades working in Congress.