| 1949 State of the Union Address | |
| Time: | 1:00 p.m. EST |
| Venue: | House Chamber, United States Capitol |
| Location: | Washington, D.C. |
| Coordinates: | 38.8897°N -77.0089°W |
| Type: | State of the Union Address |
| Participants: | Harry S. Truman Kenneth McKellar Sam Rayburn |
| Blank1 Label: | Previous |
| Blank1 Data: | 1948 State of the Union Address |
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The 1949 State of the Union Address was given by Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, on Wednesday, January 5, 1949, to the 81st United States Congress in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives.[1] It was Truman's fourth State of the Union Address. Presiding over this joint session was House speaker Sam Rayburn, accompanied by President pro tempore Kenneth McKellar, in his capacity as the acting president of the Senate since the office of Vice President was vacant. (This was because Vice President-elect Alben W. Barkley was not sworn in until January 20, 1949.)
This speech is sometimes referred to as Truman's "Fair Deal" speech since in it he declared that "Every segment of our population and every individual has a right to expect from our Government a fair deal." The term Fair Deal came to encompass all of Truman's domestic policy agenda during his time in office. Many of the proposals made in this speech were ones that Truman had previously made to the previous Republican-majority Congress in his 1948 State of the Union Address. Truman reiterated many of them in this address since control of the Congress had shifted in the 1948 United States elections to Truman's Democratic Party. The domestic-policy proposals that Truman offered in this speech were wide-ranging and included the following:[2]
Truman concluded his speech by noting that the United States stood at a consequential place in history and urged the Congress to cooperate with him in rising to the task: