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Human
Events...
French President
Hollande unlikely to be invited to address joint session of Congress
by John Gizzi
05/25/2012
With all of the attention in the U.S. given to the recent election of
French President Francois Hollande and his trip to the U.S. last week
to attend the G-8 and NATO summits, there has been some speculation in
Washington about the next visit of France’s first Socialist president
in 17 years and if he will be invited to address a joint session of
Congress.
The answer is that it is highly unlikely and, in fact, almost out of
the question.
According to the Congressional Research Service, beginning with Charles
DeGaulle after the founding of the French Fifth Republic in 1958, every
President of France visiting the United States except one has addressed
a joint session of Congress. The one French president who never
addressed Congress was Francois Mitterand, the only Socialist until
Hollande to hold the office. Mitterand, who is France’s longest
serving president (1981-95), came to Washington often and met with
three different U.S. presidents. But, Congress never invited him
to speak to them.
One of the worst-kept secrets at the Obama White House is that, as he
seeks re-election, the president would not be unhappy to have President
Hollande pass on a second trip to Washington, D.C. With Obama’s
opponents increasingly branding him a “socialist,” it obviously is not
helpful to have him alongside someone who is not only a card-carrying
Socialist, but was the general secretary (chairman) of the French
Socialist Party for a decade before he was elected president.
In all likelihood, Democratic House and Senate Members facing the
voters feel the same way.
“Technically it’s the speaker that invites the foreign leader to
address a joint meeting of Congress,” Doug Andres, deputy
communications director for the House Rules Committee, told Human
Events, “then under the rules of the House, to officially convene a
joint session of congress for the purpose of receiving a foreign
leader, both Houses (House and Senate) must first agree to a Concurrent
Resolution.”
Asked whether Speaker John Boehner was open to the idea of inviting
Hollande to address Congress on his next trip to Washington, spokesman
Michael Steel told us: “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Read this and other articles at Human
Events
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