One year into his second term, President Barack Obama has delivered the annual State of the Union Address to the a joint session of the United States Congress.

It was Obama’s fifth State of the Union since assuming office on January 20, 2009.

In the speech, Obama made it clear that he would use executive orders to implement his policy agenda.

The emotional highlight of the speech came at the end when the chamber gave a sustained standing ovation to Cory Remsburg, an Army Ranger who was badly wounded by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

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Prepared transcript of President Obama’s State of the Union Address.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, my fellow Americans:

Today in America, a teacher spent extra time with a student who needed it, and did her part to lift America’s graduation rate to its highest level in more than three decades.

An entrepreneur flipped on the lights in her tech startup, and did her part to add to the more than eight million new jobs our businesses have created over the past four years.

An autoworker fine-tuned some of the best, most fuel-efficient cars in the world, and did his part to help America wean itself off foreign oil.

A farmer prepared for the spring after the strongest five-year stretch of farm exports in our history. A rural doctor gave a young child the first prescription to treat asthma that his mother could afford. A man took the bus home from the graveyard shift, bone-tired but dreaming big dreams for his son. And in tight-knit communities across America, fathers and mothers will tuck in their kids, put an arm around their spouse, remember fallen comrades, and give thanks for being home from a war that, after twelve long years, is finally coming to an end.

Tonight, this chamber speaks with one voice to the people we represent: it is you, our citizens, who make the state of our union strong. [Read more...]