U.S. President Donald Trump says there is no basis for a powerful legislative committee to investigate his personal finances.

“No other politician has to go through that. It’s called presidential harassment. And it’s unfortunate and it really does hurt our country,” Trump responded Wednesday when asked by a reporter about the House Intelligence Committee’s decision to examine his finances.

Trump took aim at the committee’s chairman, Adam Schiff, a Democrat and prominent critic of the president.

“Under what basis would he do that? He has no basis to do that. He’s just a political hack. He’s trying to build a name for himself,” Trump said of Schiff at the conclusion of a brief event in the White House Roosevelt Room to announce David Malpass as the U.S. nominee to run the World Bank.

Hours earlier, Schiff declared that the committee, in the hands of opposition Democrats following last November’s midterm congressional election, would broaden its investigation to go “beyond Russia” and examine whether Trump’s concern for his financial interests are driving his policy decisions and other actions as president.

The committee’s wider mandate will “allow us to investigate any credible allegation that financial interests or other interests are driving decision-making of the president or anyone in the administration,” Schiff told reporters. “That pertains to any credible allegations of leverage by the Russians or the Saudis or anyone else.”

In a statement, the California congressman and former federal prosecutor said the committee would continue examining Russia’s actions during the 2016 presidential election as well as contacts between Moscow and Trump’s campaign team, but now would also scrutinize “whether any foreign actor has sought to compromise or holds leverage, financial or otherwise, over Donald Trump, his family, his business, or his associates.”

The committee voted earlier Wednesday to send more than 50 transcripts of interviews from its Russia investigation to special counsel Robert Mueller.

When the panel was under Republican control last year, lawmakers of the then-majority party in the House of Representatives sought to bring their investigation to an end, despite protests from Democrats that it was premature to reach any conclusions.

Trump, during his State of the Union address Tuesday to lawmakers of both chambers, termed such inquiries by congressional committees “ridiculous partisan investigations.”

In his speech, Trump stated, “If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation.”
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U.S. lawmakers working to avert another partial government shutdown emerged from a closed-door meeting Wednesday asserting that an agreement on border security could be reached in the coming days, but indicated that partisan differences remained on specific elements of a potential deal. 

The bipartisan joint committee, tasked with crafting a plan to boost U.S. border security before federal funding expires Feb. 15, conferred privately with career officials of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The briefing occurred one day after President Donald Trump restated his funding demand for physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The clock is ticking away,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, told reporters. “We’re hopeful. The tone is good between the various conferees. We’re dealing in substance now.”

“All of us feel pressure to get it [a deal] done, and I believe we should,” said the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois. 

Tennessean ‘optimistic’

“I continue to be very optimistic,” Tennessee Republican Rep. Chuck Fleischmann said. “We have a lot of good minds in that room. We have a lot of good hearts in that room.”

At the same time, U.S. lawmakers acknowledged that disagreements have yet to be resolved.

Durbin said Wednesday’s meeting reinforced his belief that extending walls and fencing on America’s southern border would be ineffective and wasteful. He said border officials confirmed that the vast majority of illegal narcotics entering the United States pass through legal points of entry, not over open border territory.

“It turns out that fewer than one out of five trucks are actually inspected as they come across that border, and only 1.5 percent of cars are inspected,” Durbin said, adding that the funding priority should be to provide Customs and Border Protection agents with more technology and manpower at points of entry. 

‘Three-legged stool’

North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven had a different take on the briefing. 

“One size does not fit all,” he said. “It’s a three-legged stool. Yes, you need technology. Yes, you need personnel. But you also have to have a border barrier.”

In his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday, Trump said walls are needed “to secure vast areas between our ports of entry,” adding, “Where walls go up, illegal crossings go down.”

For now, conference committee members aren’t predicting whether a border security agreement will contain even a portion of the $5.7 billion in wall funding Trump has sought, spawning doubts as to whether the president would support any bill a politically divided Congress might pass.

“Obviously, it would be great if the president decided to sign the bill,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said Tuesday. “I think the conferees ought to reach an agreement. And then we’ll hope that the president finds it worth signing.”

Stopgap bill

A 35-day partial government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, ended in late January when Congress passed a stopgap bill to reopen federal agencies for three weeks. 

The shutdown began last December, when, at Trump’s behest, the then-Republican-led House refused to consider a Senate funding bill that omitted wall funding — and Senate Democrats rejected a House-passed bill that contained wall funding.

The three-week funding period was designed to give Congress time to forge a bipartisan border security package and fully fund federal operations for the remainder of the fiscal year.

“We’re on the right track,” Texas Rep. Kay Granger, the top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, told reporters. “I think if we have enough time, we can get it done.” 
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In the foreign policy section of his State of the Union Address, U.S. President Donald Trump spoke of ending conflicts where American troops have fought for years, and preventing what he sees as inevitable future conflicts if not for the policies enacted by his administration.

Afghanistan, Iraq wars

Trump noted the vast costs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which have resulted in the deaths of nearly 7,000 U.S. military personnel since 2001.

He said that after so many years of fighting in Afghanistan, now is the time “to at least try for peace,” saying the Taliban wants the same.

“My administration is holding constructive talks with a number of Afghan groups, including the Taliban.  As we make progress in these negotiations, we will be able to reduce our troop presence and focus on counterterrorism,” Trump said.

He has also ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, where they have been fighting to dislodge the Islamic State group since the militants swept through large areas of northern Iraq and eastern Syria in 2014.

“Today, we have liberated virtually all of the territory from the grip of these bloodthirsty monsters.  Now, as we work with our allies to destroy the remnants of ISIS, it is time to give our brave warriors in Syria a warm welcome home,” Trump said, using an acronym for the militant group.

North Korea

Following up on a June 2018 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump announced Tuesday he would again meet with Kim on February 27 in Vietnam.

He touted a list of what he said were the successes of a “bold new diplomacy” toward North Korea, including the return of American hostages and a halt in nuclear and missile testing that followed the first summit.

“If I had not been elected president of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea,” Trump said, adding that his relationship with Kim “is a good one.”

Iran

His rhetoric toward Iran was much stronger, remaining consistent with the tone he has struck since before becoming president when he was strongly critical of the international agreement that limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

“My administration has acted decisively to confront the world’s leading state sponsor of terror: the radical regime in Iran,” Trump said in his address.  “It is a radical regime.  They do bad, bad things.”

Last year, Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.  Partners Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany have remained committed to the deal, along with Iran, and the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency has certified in multiple reports that Iran remains in compliance with measures meant to ensure it cannot develop a nuclear weapon.

Nuclear Arms Treaty

Trump last week announced the U.S. withdrawal from a 30-year-old nuclear arms treaty with Russia that banned the countries from possessing certain missiles.  He says Russia violated the pact, which Russia denies.

Trump suggested in his speech Tuesday the possibility of negotiating a new agreement that would add other nuclear powers such as China.  But in a comment that came shortly after he highlighted an increase in U.S. military spending, he warned that in the absence of such a deal, “we will outspend and out-innovate all others by far.”

Venezuela

Trump also used part of his speech to express support for the people of Venezuela, saying the United States stands with them “in their noble quest for freedom.”

The country has seen massive protests ahead of and following President Nicolas Maduro’s re-election last year in a vote the opposition called a sham.

The U.S. leader condemned what he called “the brutality” of Maduro’s government, saying its policies have put the country “into a state of abject poverty and despair.”

Trump reiterated U.S. support for Juan Guaido, who has also received the support of a number of European and South American countries since declaring himself president last month.  Russia and China are among the governments insisting Maduro remains president.

China and economic conflict

China featured in a much shorter section of Trump’s speech that dealt with economic conflict.

“We are now making it clear to China that after years of targeting our industries, and stealing our intellectual property, the theft of American jobs and wealth has come to an end,” Trump said.

He cited new tariffs he has imposed on imports of Chinese goods, and said negotiations continue toward a new U.S.-China trade deal that he is insisting includes protecting American jobs, reducing the U.S. trade deficit with China and ending unfair trade practices.

In one of the few specific requests he made to the joint session of Congress gathered to listen to his speech, Trump asked lawmakers to pass legislation that would respond to a country placing tariffs on U.S. goods by enacting equivalent tariffs on imports of the same products from that country coming into the United States.

Trade with Canada, Mexico

His other economic focus was trade with neighbors Canada and Mexico.

After his decision to abandon the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, representatives from the three countries came together last year to craft a new trade deal known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

The new deal has not yet been ratified, but Trump said Tuesday it would boost U.S. manufacturing jobs and automobile production, while also helping the agriculture sector and offering protections for intellectual property.
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Stacey Abrams, former Georgia state legislative leader who fell short last fall in her bid to become first African-American woman to win a governorship, gave the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s address
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Stacey Abrams, a former Georgia state legislative leader who fell short last fall in her bid to become the first African-American woman to win a governorship, gave the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union message Tuesday night.

Here are highlights of her remarks.

Abrams stressed the need for bipartisanship and the need to avoid a repeat of the recent 35-day partial government shutdown that left 800,000 federal workers furloughed and without pay. She accused Trump of “making their livelihoods a pawn for a political game” in pressing for $5.7 billion in government funds to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border that most Americans don’t want.

 
Abrams, who accused her Republican opponent for governor  -- Secretary of State Brian Kemp – of voter suppression, called for reforms to assure voting rights and ballot access to African Americans and other minorities. “This is the next battle for our democracy, one where all eligible citizens can have their say about the vision we want for our country,” she said. “We must reject the cynicism that says allowing every eligible vote to be cast and counted is a 'power grab.”

 
She called on Congress to craft a bipartisan, humane “21st century immigration plan, while complaining that “this administration chooses to cage children and tea families apart.” She said that “compassionate treatment at the border is not the same as open borders.”

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Stacey Abrams, who has been chosen to give the Democratic response to the State of the Union, is a rising political star in the Democratic Party and the first African-American woman to deliver the address.

Abrams recently showed that she can mobilize the power of black women voters in her close but unsuccessful bid to become Georgia’s governor, and Democratic leaders are hoping that her selection to give the prominent address will energize the party’s base.

“She is just a great spokesperson. She is an incredible leader. She has led the charge for voting rights, which is at the root of just about everything else,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Schumer, along with other top Democrats, have been urging Abrams to challenge Georgia’s Republican Sen. David Perdue, one of President Donald Trump’s most outspoken allies in Congress, as part of an effort to gain Democratic control of the Senate.

Boost for fellow Democrats

While Abrams narrowly lost the Georgia governor’s race last year to Republican Brian Kemp, her presence at the top of the ticket boosted Democratic votes in the state and helped other state Democrats win office.

Democrats flipped a House seat in a suburban Atlanta congressional district that Republicans had held for decades and also flipped at least a dozen state legislative seats across the Atlanta suburbs.

The fact that Abrams, 45, nearly won the governor’s race in the reliably Republican Southern state has been seen by Democrats as reinforcing her ability to gain supporters and energize voters. 

Following the race, Abrams challenged the results, sharply accusing Kemp of deliberately suppressing thousands of votes. A group backed by Abrams filed a federal lawsuit this month saying Georgia deprived many low-income people and minorities of their voting rights during the race, which was overseen by Kemp, then secretary of state.

Abrams is a Yale Law School graduate who was elected to Georgia’s General Assembly in 2006. She rose to lead the Democrats in the assembly, taking over as the minority leader in 2011. She was known by her colleagues for being well-prepared, a good listener and someone who inspired others to trust and follow her. Although she ran unapologetically as a liberal, she was still able to earn the respect of many of her Republican colleagues and work with them across the aisle.  

‘Vision for prosperity and equality’

Abrams has said she is “honored” to be delivering the response to the State of the Union address. She has said that she intends to “deliver a vision for prosperity and equality, where everyone in our nation has a voice and where each of those voices is heard.” 

In recent years, the response to the State of the Union speech has usually given by someone whom party leaders see as a rising political star. But delivering the response can also be a thankless task that is heavily scrutinized.

“Stacey Abrams embodies the American Dream, and her powerful message of progress for all is deeply needed during this time for our country,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. 
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President Donald Trump will enjoy the backdrop of a mostly solid economy as he delivers his second State of the Union address Tuesday night, though questions about its sustainability linger.

Trump will likely tout the latest signs of strength: Friday’s jobs report showed that employers added the most jobs in January in nearly a year. The proportion of Americans working or looking for work reached a roughly five-year high. And a separate report showed that factory output rose at a healthy clip in December.

Those figures, however, haven’t fully erased concerns about an array of headwinds facing the U.S. economy this year.

Several challenges loom: Overseas growth is stumbling, led by weakness in China, the world’s second-largest economy. Europe is hamstrung by a recession in Italy and the potential for an unruly Brexit. A trade war between the U.S. and China and higher U.S. mortgage rates, partly engineered by the Federal Reserve, remain threats. The impact of the administration’s tax cut may fade. And a 35-day partial government shutdown will likely trim official measures of growth for the first quarter, economists say.

U.S. businesses are defying those headwinds, for now. Many analysts attribute the economy’s current health to Trump’s tax cuts in late 2017 and a jump in government spending last year, as part of a budget deal between the administration and Congress.

“No other major economy in the world did what we did,” said Ethan Harris, global economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “The stimulus did a very good job of covering up all the blemishes of the economy, including the risks of the trade war.”

Economic growth reached 3.8 percent last spring and summer, the fastest six-month pace in four years. It also accelerated job gains at a time when many economists expected hiring to slow. With the unemployment rate already low, analysts figured that companies would have fewer unemployed people to hire.

Yet employers stepped up their hiring and drove the unemployment rate down to 3.7 percent in November, the lowest in five decades. It has since ticked up to 4 percent, partly because of government workers who were temporarily unemployed because of the shutdown.

White House officials say the good times will continue. Kevin Hassett, a top administration economist, forecasts that growth will clock in at 3 percent a year for the next decade. He predicts that the administration’s corporate tax cuts will entice businesses to invest more in machinery, software and buildings, which will make workers more productive and generate longer-term growth.

So far there is little evidence that that is happening, economists say. After a burst of investment in the first half of last year, companies have since pulled back on spending. Some economists attribute their caution to the administration’s trade war with China.

“They’re willing to add more people — that’s good,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, referring to U.S. businesses. But “right now they’re not willing to pull the trigger and bet on building more capacity. That undermines your foundation for future growth.”

Most economists expect the impact of the tax cuts and extra government spending to fade as the year progresses and for the rate hikes the Fed has already imposed to hold back growth somewhat. Inevitably, too, a prolonged global slump would weaken the U.S. economy as well.

Harris forecasts that growth will slow to a 2 percent annual rate in the final three months of this year. Economists at JPMorgan Chase expect it will be just 1.5 percent.

Exactly how the U.S. economy is faring is harder than usual to judge because many data reports, including the quarterly figures on growth, are still delayed from the shutdown. The government hasn’t yet said when it will release its first estimate of gross domestic product — the broadest gauge of the economy — for the final three months of 2018.

Trends that had looked alarming a month or two ago now appear benign, perhaps even supportive of growth. The stock market, having plunged nearly 20 percent late last year, rose 8 percent in January, its best monthly performance since 2015. Americans who are invested in stocks typically cut spending when market indexes fall steadily. That is now less likely to happen.

And suddenly the Fed under Chairman Jerome Powell looks like an economic ally. The central bank had raised its benchmark short-term interest rate four times last year — action that helped make mortgages and other consumer and business loans costlier. In December, the Fed’s policymakers said they envisioned raising rates twice more this year.

But this week, the Fed held its benchmark rate steady and sent its strongest signal to date that it saw no need to raise rates in the coming months — perhaps even for the rest of the year. Its message ignited a rally on Wall Street, which cheered the prospect of continued modest borrowing rates for the near future.

At the same time, Swonk points out that home and auto sales are declining, suggesting they have peaked. A slowdown in such major purchases could weigh on growth in the coming months.

 
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Both the president and lawmakers invite guests to the State of the Union address, usually to make a statement on an issue they wish to highlight. Here are some notable officials and the guests they plan to bring to the address.

President Donald Trump

The president has invited Judah Samet, who survived the Holocaust and the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018 that killed 11 people, as well as Timothy Matson, a member of the Pittsburgh Police Department SWAT team, which responded to the shooting. Trump has invited several other people, including family members of Gerald and Sharon David, a Nevada couple who were killed in their home in January by an illegal immigrant; Matthew Charles, who was sentenced in 1996 to 35 years in prison for selling crack cocaine, among other charges, and was released in January as a result of Trump’s prison reforms; and Elvin Hernandez, a special agent with the Trafficking in Persons Unit of the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations division.

​House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

The Democratic minority leader is bringing Elizabeth Guzman, the Virginia delegate who will deliver the Spanish response to the State of the Union address. Pelosi has also invited Melody Klingenfuss, who was brought illegally to the United States a child, also known as a “Dreamer.” 

Senator Rick Scott

Republican Scott’s guest for the State of the Union address is Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was one of 17 people killed in the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting. Scott, who was the governor of Florida when the shooting took place, appointed Pollack to Florida’s education board. However, Scott’s successor, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, rescinded that appointment along with dozens of others made by Scott.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Democrat Ocasio-Cortez is taking Ana Maria Archila, a woman who cornered former Senator Jeff Flake on live television to protest his support for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Archila, who lives in Ocasio-Cortez’s New York district, confronted Flake in a Senate elevator along with another woman last September and yelled at him over his support of Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault. The women described themselves as survivors of sexual assault and asked Flake to reconsider his support of Kavanaugh, a moment that was replayed throughout the media. Kavanaugh denied the accusation and was later confirmed to the high court.

Representative Jeff Fortenberry

Republican Fortenberry, from Nebraska, has invited Nadia Murad, an Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist who escaped captivity by the Islamic State and went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

​Representative Jimmy Gomez 

Democrat Gomez, from California, is bringing Sandra Diaz, a formerly undocumented immigrant who worked as a housekeeper from 2010-2013 at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Diaz is from Costa Rica and has since become a legal U.S. resident. Democratic Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey has invited Victorina Morales, another undocumented worker who previously worked at the same Trump property. Morales was fired from working as a maid in the golf club after coming forward to the media about being undocumented.

Senator Thom Tillis

Republican Tillis, from North Carolina, will attend the State of the Union with evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson, who was released from a Turkish prison last year. The detention of Brunson, on charges of espionage in 2016, strained U.S.-Turkey relations. The Trump administration had strongly pressed Turkey for his release.

Representative Chris Pappas

Democrat Pappas, from New Hampshire, is one of at least four members of Congress who is bringing a transgender service member or veteran to the address. Pappas, an openly gay congressman, has invited Tavion Dignard, who served in the U.S. Navy from 1998-2002. The Trump administration has banned most openly transgender men and women from serving in the military, and the Supreme Court ruled last month the government could carry out the policy while legal challenges to it play out in the court system. 
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White House officials are expressing anger after an insider leaked months of President Donald Trump’s private schedules.  

The release of the information is a “disgraceful breach of trust,” according to Madeleine Westerhout, the director of Oval Office operations.

In a tweet, Westerhout said what the documents do not show “are the hundreds of calls and meetings” the president takes every day.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders is also pushing back on the assessment that the schedules reveal the majority of Trump’s time is spent in unstructured “executive time” – reinforcing the image the president prefers to devote many hours every day watching news on cable television and tweeting about it.

“President Trump has a different leadership style than his predecessors and the results speak for themselves,” said Sanders, adding that the president “spends much of his average day in scheduled meetings, events, and calls.”

The 95 pages of private Trump schedules were obtained by the Axios website, which posted the material online Sunday.

It shows 60 percent of the president’s schedule since last November’s midterm elections is set aside for him to casually meet with staff members, peruse the stack of newspapers delivered to his office, watch television and make phone calls to officials and informal advisers.  

“What’s not entirely unusual are swaths of unscheduled time on the public schedule. It’s true that not all of the commander-in-chief’s engagements can be broadcast to the world,” explains Ned Price, a special assistant to the president during the administration of former President Barack Obama.

“What’s stunning in this case is that there’s nothing behind the curtain for Trump. Nothing. And the fact that they delineate ‘policy time’ – an hour every once in a while – speaks to the fact that the remainder of the time is taken up with Fox News and other favored presidential past times,” Price, a former National Security Council high-ranking official, tells VOA.

Sanders disputes that assessment, contending Trump’s schedule allows “for a more creative environment that has helped make him the most productive president in modern history.”

What is indisputable is that different presidents have had individual management styles.

Historians note that early in his presidency, Bill Clinton was habitually late and often deviated from the planned schedule.

Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, were more disciplined. Former administration officials say Bush’s schedule was tight and planned months in advance. Obama occasionally had blocks of unscheduled time, but that usually was for preparation ahead of a big speech or major international travel.

Recent news articles and books by former administration officials have spoken of Trump having a short attention span and expressing impatience in briefings about military and intelligence matters.

White House officials dispute the characterization Trump is not interested in such topics or has only a superficial understanding of them. What is clear, according to news reports and those close to the president, is that he prefers succinct presentations with more visual elements than those that were prepared for his predecessors.

The concept of “executive time” was introduced for Trump by former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly for a president bristling in response to being locked into a fixed schedule.

Indeed, many of this president’s meetings and discussions occur on the spur of the moment.

Reporters sometimes find out details about such events when the rotational pool of journalists always standing by for presidential events is summoned to the Oval Office, the Roosevelt Room or elsewhere at the White House. At other times, Trump will make an announcement on Twitter, his favorite social media platform, giving insight into which issue he has suddenly prioritized.

 
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It’s one of the most sensitive security challenges in America: The State of the Union address puts the president, his Cabinet, members of Congress, military leaders, top diplomats and Supreme Court justices all in the same place at the same time for all the world to see.

Protecting everyone requires months of planning and coordination involving multiple law enforcement agencies, led by the U.S. Secret Service. Thousands of officers work across agencies in ways seen and unseen.

Security for the speech was in the spotlight during the partial government shutdown, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi cited safety concerns as her reason for delaying President Donald Trump’s speech. But law enforcement officials said the shutdown would not have compromised security if the speech had gone forward as originally scheduled.

Now the speech is set for Tuesday. The Secret Service is, well, secretive about its plans, though it provides some details:

Long before the speech, a steering committee is formed to explore the best way to secure the event. The Secret Service works with U.S. military, parks and local police, Capitol police, emergency management experts and the FBI. There are 19 subcommittees on areas like crowd management, intelligence and counterterrorism, traffic and crisis. Each subcommittee contains experts across law enforcement.

Teams run drills. Officials perform tabletop exercises, running through potential disasters and pore over the report from the previous year to see how they can improve. Analysts comb social media for signs of threatening behavior and monitor world events to help inform how security should be tailored for the event.

The tradition and familiarity of the event is also the biggest security challenge; it’s basically the same every year, officials said. And there are only so many ways officials can vary traffic routes or arrivals and departures.

“You have to be creative,” said Wes Schwark, assistant to the special agent in charge of the Dignitary Protective Division. “You try not to stick our head out in the same place twice.”

On the day of the event, an operations center is set up at an undisclosed location where law enforcement officials scan social media, monitor traffic and protests, drones and other aircraft and communicate potential threats with agents in the field.

“We don’t want the problem to be in the chamber, we want the problem to be as far away from the chamber as possible,” said Ken Valentine, special agent in charge of the Dignitary Protective Division, which is tasked with coordinating the event. “We’re trying to push that out so if there is an issue, we’re dealing with it as far away as possible.”

The streets around the building are frozen and secured. The Capitol Plaza is locked down and those inside are limited from moving around the building. The president and his entourage typically gather in a room off the House floor to await their entrances to the House chamber.

Metro stations are checked, counter-sniper teams with long-arm rifles perch on rooftops, bomb-sniffing dogs, uniformed officers and plainclothes agents patrol. Traffic is locked down. The House Chamber is swept randomly and consistently for explosives.

“All of those are more traditional means of countering an attack, but they serve as a deterrent,” Valentine said.

The biggest shift in recent history has been the prevalence of technology, both as a possible security concern and a tool.

“It gives us a heads-up, or a warning when we are going to start engaging in something that maybe before would have been right up on us,” Schwark said on technology. “It allows us to start taking some type of action sooner.”

Despite the heavy security, there is a traditional precaution in case of a disaster: At least one Cabinet member in the line of presidential succession, and at least one Supreme Court justice, stay away from the speech.

“Given their public profile, National Special Security Events are potentially attractive targets for malicious actors who may seek to hurt attendees or incite fear into our way of life,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. “DHS, our component agencies and federal partners work tirelessly to secure the State of the Union.”

In the end, Secret Service agents are trained to protect the president and do it every day, so shifting from working the South Lawn to the State of the Union isn’t much of a difference for them, officials said.

“It’s just another day at work,” Valentine said.
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