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����ɫ��ҹ University of California political scientist Alison Howard, whose research focuses on presidential rhetoric, will be watching President Donald Trump’s Joint Address to Congress to see how he communicates policy requests and his legislative agenda to Congress - and the public.

As noted in a March 3 article, Howard and colleague Donna Hoffman, the Chuck and Barbara Grassley Professor of Political Science at the University of Northern Iowa, say the president’s annual address to Congress (often a State of the Union Address) gives “presidents an opportunity to initiate and/or accelerate the discussion with Congress and the public about policy on which they seek to lead." 

Howard and Hoffman have spent more than a decade studying presidential State of the Union addresses.

In their book, "Addressing the State of the Union," Howard and Hoffman examine the evolution of the annual address and outline the ways presidents use the address to gain attention, to communicate with target audiences, and to make specific policy proposals.

The State of the Union Address provides presidents with an opportunity to claim credit for accomplishments, propose new policies, and set the tone for what the administration hopes to accomplish during the year.

“President Trump has spent the first few weeks of his presidency issuing an extraordinary number of executive orders that he will likely claim credit for in his speech,” Howard says.

The annual address is an important reminder that presidents don’t govern alone as our system is one of shared powers, she adds.

“The goal of the speech is to set the agenda, be persuasive, and have Congressional influence,” Howard says. “Does President Trump change course from how he has governed in his first few weeks in office and signal that he needs Congress to work with him to enact his policy agenda?”

Hoffman and Howard examine the annual addresses to better understand how successful or unsuccessful presidents are in accomplishing their legislative requests. They have analyzed legislation passed after every State of the Union Address since 1965 to see which requests presidents made of Congress were adopted the following year. On average, only 23.9 percent of all 1,871 requests were fully enacted by Congress, with 13.3 percent partially enacted and 62.7 percent not successful.

Over the years, presidents have used the State of the Union address as a means of winning public support for their policies. Modern presidents (presidents since 1965) include specific calls for Congressional action in their State of the Union address, with a median of 33.5 requests per address, ranging from President Obama’s 2016 low of 5 to President Clinton’s high of 87 requests in 2000. 

In 2017, President Trump made 23 requests of which 4.3 percent were fully successful and 78.3 percent were not successful. In 2018, he made 24 requests, of which 25 percent were fully successful and 70.8 percent were not successful. In 2019, President Trump made 20 requests, of which 20 percent were fully successful and 70 percent were not successful. In 2020, he made 12 requests of which 100 percent were not successful.

In 2023, President Biden made 47 requests (up from 43 in 2021). The 2023 requests were fully successful 14.9 percent of the time (compared with 7 percent in 2021) and not successful 83 percent of the time (compared with 79 percent in 2021). In 2024, President Biden made 37 requests of which 18.9 percent were fully successful and 75.7 percent were not successful.