Psaki says Biden isn't 'snubbing' Congress by postponing joint address

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday said President Biden is not "snubbing" Congress by delaying his joint address, pointing to the coronavirus pandemic and saying the administration has been "engaged closely" with congressional leadership regarding their plans.

No date for the address has yet been scheduled, even though the president had suggested it would take place in February.

Psaki was pressed on Friday during the White House press briefing on what the cause for the delay was, as most presidents deliver a joint address to Congress within the first weeks of their administration to lay out their policy proposals, and she was asked whether he would deliver an address at all.

"There is not — it is not a snubbing happening here," Psaki said. "We are in the middle of a global pandemic, and of course, any joint session speech would look different than the past."

Psaki said, "We certainly intend on the president delivering a joint session speech, not a State of the Union, in the first year that they are in office."

"But we don’t have a date for that or a timeline at this point in time," she continued. "And we have been engaged closely with leaders in Congress about determining that."

Psaki was also asked about the delay earlier in the week, and she said Biden will wait address a joint session of Congress until after Congress decides on the American Rescue Plan, his coronavirus relief package.

"When it became clear, which it should have been from the beginning, that the American Rescue Plan would take until about, hopefully, about mid-March to get passed and signed into law, we made a decision internally that we weren't going to have the president propose his forward-looking agenda beyond that," Psaki said, noting that parts of Biden's "Build Back Better" agenda are "still being determined" and that there are still discussions ongoing "internally."

Psaki maintained, though, that he wo... (Read more)

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