Article Ⅱ, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution states 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". Informally, this has been the going practice - off and on - for a variety of American presidents from George Washington onwards. However, this was formally declared as the State of the Union address in 1947. Since then, it has been delivered with quite rigour and pomp - useful or not, that is a separate debate.
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