Obama Addresses Joint Session Of Congress Tuesday; Gov. Jindal To Give Republican Response

February 24, 2009 6:36 a.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - President Barack Obama will address a joint session of Congress Tuesday night in what will serve as a State of the Union in his first year in office. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has been chosen to give the Republican response.

A month after taking office, Obama is scheduled to speak before lawmakers at 9:00 pm ET. He will "speak to the nation about our urgent national priorities," he said last Saturday in his weekly address.

The President will address Congress ahead of the release of his 2010 budget on Thursday. He is currently working on proposals to fix the nation's long-term fiscal future after weeks of negotiating with Democrats and Republicans on short-term efforts, such as a $787 billion stimulus and $75 billion foreclosure plan.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who in recent days strongly criticized the stimulus and repeatedly declared he would reject his state's share of it, has been chosen to give the Republican response. The governor, one of the rising stars of the GOP and was reported to have been considered last year as a running mate of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), told NBC's "Meet the Press" over the weekend he would refuse to take the $100 million for federal unemployment assistance for his state.

"The best thing that Washington could do to help Louisiana and all of our states with our budgets is to get this economy moving again," Jindal said. "I don't think the best way to do that is for the government to tax and borrow more money... The $100 million we turned down was temporary federal dollars that would require us to change our unemployment laws. That would've actually raised taxes on Louisiana businesses. We as a state would've been responsible for paying for those benefits after the federal money disappeared."