Pelosi opens Biden State of the Union speech to full House

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy All members of Congress are being invited to attend President Joe Biden's upcoming State of the Union address, crowding the House chamber for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic as the White House tries to nudge COVID-19 toward the nation’s rear-view mirror. She said, “I think the people are ready to pivot in a way that shows to the American people we largely have been vaccinated here.” Seating for Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress last April was capped at about 200 — about 20% of usual capacity for a presidential presentation. Though the Capitol and other federal properties set their own rules, the District of Columbia’s indoor mask requirement for most indoor gatherings and businesses is to be lifted on the same day as Biden’s address, The White House says it will be going by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance. Federal officials are racing to finalize new, more flexible national guidance on mask-wearing and other policies before Biden steps up to the rostrum in the House chamber at 9:01 p.m. “We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing, when these metrics are better, and then have the ability to reach for them again, should things worsen,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said Wednesday.