The State of the Union Address is required of the President by the US Constitution.
He 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;
US Constitution, Article II, section 3.
It is received by a joint session of Congress and is also attended by the members of the President's cabinet, the Supreme Court Justices, and other invited guests. For security and emergency purposes, one member of the President's cabinet does not attend and will watched from an undisclosed location, outside of Washington, D.C. Recently, it has been added that a few members of Congress be withheld from attending, also for security purposes.
Traditionally, the President begins his speech with "... the State of the Union is..." and then he will describe what he perceives to be the current condition. He gives a summary of his accomplishments of the past year and then the President will follow up by describing what he believes can be done to make things better. He gives a general direction in the form of goals and objectives for the upcoming year and uses this platform to help guide Congress in its upcoming term to craft legislation to support his goals.
