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WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Paul Ryan says Republicans are "not expecting much new" from the State of the Union address -- but that they're hoping to hear a "comprehensive plan" for defeating the Islamic State group.
President Barack Obama is expected to reiterate steps his administration is taking to curb that group's power in the Mideast, and to limit its ability to carry out attacks in the West.
This is the first State of the Union speech since Ryan became speaker last year.
White House advisers have made it clear that Obama is hoping to counter what the White House sees as a gloom-and-doom message from Republican presidential candidates with an upbeat State of the Union address tonight. But Obama isn't expected to get into any specifics of the 2016 contest.
He'll be delivering his speech before a Republican-led Congress that is angry about his executive orders on issues from guns to immigration.
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189-w-37-(Mark Smith, AP White House correspondent, with President Barack Obama)--President Obama is delivering his final State of the Union speech tonight to a tough audience: an angry electorate and a Congress hostile to his policies. AP White House Correspondent Mark Smith reports. (12 Jan 2016)
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APPHOTO DCCK105: President Barack Obama walks along the colonnade of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016, to the residence from the Oval Office, hours before giving his State Of The Union address. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) (12 Jan 2016)
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APPHOTO DCSA111: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., joined by Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, right, and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., second from right, speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016, ahead of President Barack Obama's final State of the Union address tonight. In his last year in the White House, President Obama faces a Congress where both the Senate and the House are controlled by Republicans opposed to his policies. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) (12 Jan 2016)
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