[The President] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.
Article II, Section 3, Clause 1.
The formal basis for the State of the Union Address is from the U.S. Constitution:
The President “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Article II, Section 3, Clause 1.
The constitutionally mandated presidential message has gone through a few name changes:
It was formally known as the Annual Message from 1790 to 1946.
It began to be informally called the "state of the Union" message/address from 1942 to 1946.
Since 1947 it has officially been known as the State of the Union Address.
https://history.house.gov/Institution/SOTU/State-of-the-Union
https://history.house.gov/Institution/SOTU/List Mar 7, 2024 "The following is a list of in-person Annual Message and State of the Union Addresses given by Presidents of the United States before Joint Sessions of Congress. There have been 100 total in-person addresses from 1790 to 2024." United States House of Represenatives
https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/first-annual-address-to-congress Mar 11, 2024 "On January 8, 1790, President George Washington delivered the very first Annual Message to a Joint Session of Congress (now known as the State of the Union address), in the Senate chamber of Federal Hall in New York City. The address fulfilled Article II, Section 3, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution, which states that the President, “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Though a routine political tradition today, Washington's address represented a milestone in the long and difficult process of implementing and interpreting the Constitution, defining the respective roles of the three branches of government, and forging the political basis of a unified national identity." The Digital Encyclopedia of George Washington
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