1977 State of the Union Address

The 1977 State of the Union address was given by President Gerald R. Ford to a joint session of the 95th United States Congress on Wednesday, January 12, 1977. Presiding over this joint session was the House speaker, Tip O'Neill, accompanied by Nelson Rockefeller, the vice president, in his capacity as the president of the Senate.

The speech lasted 44 minutes and 55 seconds and contained 4,727 words. In the speech, President Ford discussed the Vietnam War, national defense, and fiscal policy issues.

To date, this State of the Union address was the last one delivered as a speech to a joint session of Congress by a president in January of the same year in which he left office. Thus, Gerald Ford is the last president to have given a State of the Union address as a speech in the same year in which he left office.