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
Member state of the European Union while others remained skeptical. It was only a decade before the first countries changed their policy and attempted to join the Union, which led to the first skepticism of enlargement. French President Charles de Gaulle feared British membership would be an American Trojan horse and vetoed its application. It was only after de Gaulle left office and a 12-hour talk by British Prime Minister Edward Heath and French President Georges Pompidou took place that the United Kingdom's third application succeeded in 1970. Applying in 1969 were the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, and Norway. Norway, however, declined to accept the invitation