The President will deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 12 for the final time in his presidency. The speech is expected to be more general in tone than in the past speeches with the President focusing on his larger vision for the country rather than specific programs or budget requests.

The Administration also announced the release date for the FY 2017 budget now set for February 9. This is approximately a week later than the required release date but is much earlier than past Obama budgets.  It has been the pattern over the last several years for budget to be delivered late into February or even March as the annual appropriations have not been completed by Congress by the start of the federal fiscal year on October 1 during most of the Obama Administration.

The budget agreement between the two parties last year that allowed the FY 2016 budget to be finished also included an agreement on spending ceilings for 2017.

Defense spending will be set at $551 billion while domestic spending will be set at $518 billion. The domestic spending is the same as 2016 while the defense piece goes up by $3 billion. The President may include in his budget some new spending which would likely be offset by some revenue raisers of some form.