State of Union address, budget submission slated for early February
Key events in the annual budget cycle will kick off two weeks after President Bush's second-term inauguration.
President Bush will deliver his State of the Union address on February 2 and will send Congress his fiscal 2006 budget proposal on Monday, February 7, according to White House and congressional sources.
White House officials reviewed the second terms of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton to inform their thinking about scheduling the State of the Union address, which will take place on a Wednesday night, nearly two weeks after the president's January 20 inauguration.
The president hopes that his address -- which will lay out a thematic but policy-rooted rationale for his second term -- will follow elections in Iraq on January 30.
Early in the year, Bush will travel at home to sell his domestic agenda as the GOP-controlled Congress digs into the legislative details, and Bush plans a goodwill swing through Europe beginning on February 22.