President's Speech Moves to Sept. 8

The president will now speak to a joint session of Congress on Sept. 8.

That is according to a statement from the White House late Wednesday. The president had first asked for a Sept. 7 date to talk about the economy, but that conflicted with a Republican presidential candidate debate on MSNBC.

The White House made no reference to the debate in the statement, but said the speech would be on Sept. 8 after consultation with Republican House Speaker John Boehner.

"Today, the president asked to address the Congress about the need for urgent action on the economic situation facing the American people as soon as Congress returned from recess. Both Houses will be back in session after their August recess on Wednesday, Sept. 7, so that was the date that was requested," the White House said in the statement. "We consulted with the Speaker about that date before the letter was released, but he determined Thursday would work better. The president is focused on the urgent need to create jobs and grow our economy, so he welcomes the opportunity to address a Joint Session of Congress on Thursday, Sept. 8 and challenge our nation's leaders to start focusing 100% of their attention on doing whatever they can to help the American people."

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.