All members of Congress will be invited to attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address, but no guest tickets will be provided, the attending physician announced Thursday.
According to the memo outlining the COVID-19 mitigation efforts for the event on March 1, members will be seated on the House floor and galleries and will be required to wear K-N95 or N95 face masks and have a negative PCR test at least one day before the speech.
Because the gallery will be used to seat members of Congress, no guest tickets will be issued, according to the memo.
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Most of Washington, D.C.’s indoor mask mandates are scheduled to expire the day before the address, although some exceptions, such as those for public transit, will remain in effect.
While the indoor mandate continues, mask-wearing has been sporadic in the Capitol complex, leading to confrontations among members and staff. House rules require masks to be worn on the House floor — a rule a handful of Republican lawmakers have flouted, accumulating thousands of dollars in fines from the Ethics Committee.
The Capitol Complex also remains closed to the public as a mitigation effort.
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The event will be Biden’s first State of the Union address. Last year, he addressed a joint session of Congress in a heavily restricted event due to both the pandemic and security concerns in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
