1971 State of the Union Address

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1971 State of the Union Address
DateJanuary 22, 1971 (1971-01-22)
Time9:00 p.m. EST
Duration33 minutes
VenueHouse Chamber, United States Capitol
Location Washington, D.C.
Coordinates 38°53′23″N77°00′32″W / 38.88972°N 77.00889°W / 38.88972; -77.00889
Type State of the Union Address
Participants Richard Nixon
Spiro Agnew
Carl Albert
Previous 1970 State of the Union Address
Next 1972 State of the Union Address

The 1971 State of the Union Address was given by U.S. President Richard Nixon on January 22, 1971. [1]

Contents

Topics

At the very start of the address, Nixon mourned the death of Senator Richard Russell Jr. [2]

The address was known for introducing Nixon's "six great goals", [3] :52 [4] which would go on to be reiterated in the 1972 State of the Union Address: [3] :54

  1. Welfare reform, particularly with the proposed Family Assistance Plan
  2. Peacetime prosperity, and stimulating the economy
  3. Restoring the natural environment, particularly with the National Environmental Policy Act
  4. Expanding health care (which Nixon would later go on to fulfill with the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 and the December 1971 National Cancer Act)
  5. Revenue sharing with state and local governments (later accomplished with the 1972 General Revenue Sharing Bill, which became the State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act of 1972)
  6. Reorganize the federal government (this would have reduced 12 of the departments down to 8 had it happened, though it did not).

Notably, the 1971 State of the Union did not touch upon foreign policy. [5]

Response

On January 26, 1971, Senator Mike Mansfield (D-MT), then the Senate Majority Leader, responded to the address in an interview with four network correspondents. [6]

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References

  1. "Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union. | The American Presidency Project". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  2. "Transcript of President's State of the Union Message to Joint Session of Congress". The New York Times. 1971-01-23. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  3. 1 2 Harper, Edwin L. (1996). "Domestic Policy Making in the Nixon Administration: An Evolving Process". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 26 (1): 41–56. ISSN   0360-4918. JSTOR   27551549.
  4. Movroydis, Jonathan (2016-01-13). "The 1971 State of the Union: Nixon's Six Great Goals". Richard Nixon Foundation. Retrieved 2024-03-12.
  5. "Who Decides the 'State of the World'?". The Meriden Journal . 9 February 1971.
  6. "U.S. Senate: Opposition Responses to the State of the Union Address (1966-Present)". www.senate.gov. Retrieved 2024-03-12.