House Chamber Will Be 12.5 Percent Full for Joe Biden Address During Coronavirus Pandemic

President Joe Biden will deliver his first address to Congress on Wednesday evening, but only about 12.5 percent of the seats will be filled due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions.

Two hundred people will attend Biden’s speech on Wednesday night, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has limited attendance.

“It will be its own character; it will be its own wonderful character,” Pelosi told reporters about the speech. “We went from 1,600 people to 200 people. That is a different dynamic, but it has its own worth.”

At its peak, the House chamber can fit about 1,600 people in the upper galleries and the chamber itself, which is typical for a presidential address to Congress. The first lady attends and invites several guests to her personal box, the president’s entire cabinet, the joint chiefs, and the Supreme Court justices also attend.

The event is typically so packed with important officials that a “designated survivor” is picked to run the government should the worst-case scenario occur and all officials perish during the speech.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday there would be no designated survivor as the president’s cabinet officials would stay home.

First Lady Jill Biden will attend the speech, the White House confirmed, but she will not bring guests. She plans to hold an event to highlight a “virtual box” of guests at 4:00 p.m.

Chief Justice John Roberts will be the only member of the Supreme Court to attend and one member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chairman Mark A. Milley will attend. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will represent Biden’s cabinet.

Not all members of Congress will be allowed to attend, and many Republicans opted not to go.

Thirty senators from each party will attend the speech and even fewer members of the House of Representatives. Only about 20 journalists will be allowed into the building.

All House members in the chamber are required by the House rules to wear a mask during the event even though most of the people in the chamber have presumably been vaccinated for the virus.

The masking rules do not apply to Biden, a senior Democrat aide told Breitbart News. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that Biden would arrive to the speech wearing a mask and take it off for the speech.