The State of the Union address is a communication between the President and Congress in which the chief executive reports on the current conditions of the United States and provides policy proposals for the upcoming legislative year. The State of the Union address originates in the Constitution. As part of the system of checks and balances, Article II, Section 3, clause 1 requires that the President "shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." In recent decades, the President has expanded his State of the Union audience, addressing the speech to both the nation and Members of Congress. From Congress's perspective, the State of the Union address may be considered the most important presidential speech of the year. Although Presidents may ask to address Congress in joint session on extraordinary occasions, the State of the Union is the one time Presidents are regularly scheduled to venture to the House chamber to present their programmatic priorities and set the tone for the ensuing year. Although modern Presidents communicate with Congress and the public regularly, the State of the Union provides the President with a unique opportunity to present his entire policy platform in one speech. From the President's perspective, the State of the Union address has evolved from a constitutional duty to a welcome source of executive power and authority. Standing before the American public to deliver the annual address, the President combines several constitutional roles: chief of state, chief executive, chief diplomat, commander-in-chief, and chief legislator. Besides delivering the State of the Union, there is no other annual opportunity for the President to showcase his entire arsenal of constitutional powers. Over time, the State of the Union address has evolved considerably. The format and delivery of the speech has changed, and its length has fluctuated widely. Some scholars have suggested the speech has evolved to mimic American culture and ethos, with a growing emphasis on self-interest. Technology has also influenced the delivery of the address, with the advent of radio, television, and the Internet playing significant roles in the transformation. As a rhetorical tool, the State of the Union address has changed in several substantial ways since the origins of the American republic. It is difficult to point to one moment in time when the address developed into the contemporary speech now commonly recognized as the starting point of the legislative session. Instead, several Presidents throughout American history presided over shifts and variations to the address. George Washington gave the first "State of the Union" address on January 8, 1790. At that time, the speech was known as the "Annual Message." Washington's address, which was quite short at 1,089 words, was delivered before both houses of Congress. As the nomenclature implies, when Washington gave his second Annual Message the following year, he established the precedent that the President would provide information annually to Congress. John Adams followed Washington's precedent during his tenure. Likening it to a "speech from the throne" reminiscent of monarchy's vestiges, Thomas Jefferson changed course and instead submitted his Annual Message in writing. Historians also speculate that Jefferson was a poor public speaker and did not want to deliver it orally since his Inaugural Address had been barely audible and was unfavorably received. Between 1801 and 1913, Presidents fulfilled their constitutional duty by sending their yearly report as a formal written letter to Congress. These written messages contained information about the state of the nation, including policy recommendations. During this time period, the Annual Message swelled in length, with several exceeding 25,000 words. President Woodrow Wilson altered historical precedent when he delivered the 1913 Annual Message in the House chamber before a joint session of Congress. Although Wilson's action "stunned official Washington," he had written extensively in Constitutional Government about his disagreement with Jefferson's decision to submit the address in writing. Instead, Wilson read the Constitution as providing the President with the broad authority to serve as a national spokesman. Wilson altered presidential rhetoric, using it as an intermediary tool to draw widespread public attention to the policies he supported. The public's endorsement served as political leverage that could compel Members of Congress to support his legislative agenda. From 1913 until 1934, the Annual Message entered a transitional phase in which Presidents occasionally issued the address orally. Wilson delivered six of his eight Annual Messages in person, and Warren Harding presented his two addresses orally. Calvin Coolidge gave one address in the House chamber, and became the first President to broadcast the annual speech on radio. During his presidential terms, Franklin Roosevelt solidified the oral tradition of the Annual Message. Roosevelt also applied the constitutional language "State of the Union," both to the message and the event, which became the popular nomenclature from his presidency forward. Given its oral rather than written delivery, the length of the address decreased to between 5,000 and 7,000 words. Roosevelt also ushered in the modern tradition of using the collective words "we" and "our" with greater frequency than his predecessors. Figure 1 displays the length of State of the Union addresses across American presidential history. It shows the sudden drop in 1913, when Woodrow Wilson resuscitated the oral mode of delivery. The spikes after Wilson are instances in which Presidents issued the final State of the Union of their term in writing, such as Franklin Roosevelt in 1945 and Carter in 1981. After winning reelection in 1972, Richard Nixon issued a series of written messages in 1973 instead of giving an overview speech. Barack Obama's 2015 speech contained 6,718 words, which was slightly shorter than his 2014 speech of 6,989 words. The 2015 address lasted 59 minutes, 57 seconds. Harry Truman's 1947 State of the Union address was the first televised. Until 1965, Presidents issued the State of the Union during the day. To attract a larger viewing audience, Lyndon Johnson changed the time of the speech to the evening. This practice has been followed since Johnson, and Presidents now explicitly direct the address to the citizens of the United States as well as Congress. The State of the Union address is a speech steeped in tradition and ceremony. It is known for its display of pomp and circumstance, perhaps corroborating Thomas Jefferson's objection that the custom retains monarchical elements. In presenting the address, the President fulfills political and ceremonial functions. The combination of such roles makes the annual speech a uniquely powerful ritual. Until the Twentieth Amendment changed the timing for the new terms of Senators and Representatives to January 3, the annual message was routinely delivered in December. Since 1934, the President's annual message has been delivered on a range of dates, from January 3 to February 2. To attract television viewers across the United States, the address is normally presented at nine o'clock in the evening, Eastern Standard Time. The State of the Union address is now customarily delivered in the House chamber of the Capitol, before a joint session of Congress. A concurrent resolution, agreed to by both chambers, sets aside an appointed time for a joint session of the House and Senate "for the purpose of receiving such communication as the President of the United States shall be pleased to make to them." Aside from reserved places for leadership, seats in the chamber are not assigned to Members. Any time during the day, House Members may claim a seat for the evening's address. They must, however, remain physically in the seat to retain their place for the speech. At the designated time, Senators cross the Capitol to the House chamber, where seats are reserved for them as a group at the front of the chamber. The Speaker and the Vice President (in his capacity as President of the Senate) occupy seats on the dais, and the Speaker presides. Seats in the well of the House chamber are reserved for the President's Cabinet, Justices of the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, former Members of Congress, and members of the diplomatic corps. In accord with long-standing custom and to ensure the continuity of government, one Cabinet secretary does not attend the speech. After September 11, 2001, congressional leadership began designating two Members from each house of Congress, representing both parties, to remain absent from the Capitol during the President's speech. At the January 25, 2011, State of the Union, Members of Congress broke from tradition and sat next to Members of the opposing party. In previous years, Members have taken their seats in a bifurcated fashion, choosing to sit with Members of their own party. In a "Dear Colleague" letter written two weeks before the speech, Senator Mark Udall urged Members of both chambers "to cross the aisle and sit together." Members of Congress have continued the bipartisan practice of seating since 2011, although the number of Members sitting next to a Member of the opposing party has significantly dwindled. Seating in the gallery is restricted to ticket holders and is coordinated by the House Sergeant at Arms. Each Member of Congress receives one chamber ticket, with a specific reserved seat, for the address. Congressional leadership and the White House receive multiple tickets. Since 1982, in a new tradition established by Ronald Reagan, Presidents frequently ask guests to join the First Lady in the gallery. These individuals usually have performed an act of heroism or achieved an impressive milestone that illustrates an important theme in the President's speech. At the appropriate time, the President acknowledges the guests seated adjacent to the First Lady and identifies their particular contribution. Presidential speechwriters refer to these guests as "Lenny Skutniks" in reference to the first guest highlighted by Reagan in 1982. Recent guests have included Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Apple CEO Tim Cook, CEO of Baby Einstein Julie Aigner-Clark, civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, former President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, NBA star and humanitarian Dikembe Mutombo, former Treasury Secretary and Senator Lloyd Bentsen, baseball great Hank Aaron, NBA player Jason Collins, Wesley Autrey (who rescued a man on the New York City subway tracks), and numerous active military servicemembers and veterans.