1999 State of the Union Address 1999 State of the Union Address The 1999 State of the Union address was given by President Bill Clinton to a joint session of the 106th United States Congress on Tuesday, January 19, 1999. The speech was the third State of the Union address of President Clinton's second term. This was the first State of the Union address with Dennis Hastert as Speaker of the House of Representatives. President Clinton discussed the economy, the federal budget, taxes and focused on the budget surplus, then at $70 billion. The president also discussed the future of Social Security, education, foreign relations and
State of the Union none has done so since Jimmy Carter sent a written message in 1981. In 1953 and 1961, Congress received both a written State of the Union message from the outgoing president and a separate State of the Union speech by the incoming president. Since 1989, in recognition that the responsibility of reporting the State of the Union formally belongs to the president who held office during the past year, newly inaugurated Presidents have not officially called their first speech before Congress a "State of the Union" message. In 1936, President Roosevelt set a precedent when he delivered the address at