Skip to content

Inauguration Planners Launch Social Media Presence

It won’t be for another few weeks until Americans know which candidate will be sworn in to the White House in January, but planning for the 57th presidential inauguration is already well under way.

And with just about three months left, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, for the first time, has built a social media presence to keep citizens in the loop.

The JCCIC, led this year by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), has launched a new website and Facebook page for the 2013 inaugural festivities.

“[The] new website will provide an encyclopedic resource to Inauguration watchers across the nation and the world,” Schumer said in a statement. “Our first-ever Facebook page will … be an important source of practical information for Inauguration attendees.”

The website will be a “one-stop shop for all Inaugural facts, figures and information, past and present,” according to a release from Schumer’s office, and it is designed to appeal to historians, teachers and other presidential history enthusiast. One feature takes visitors through a president’s typical Inauguration Day; another section of the site links to the text of each inaugural address all the way back to George Washington. The website even features the menus and selected recipes for recent inaugural luncheons.

The Facebook page will be regularly updated with interactive features also seen on the website, such as videos of previous inaugurations. As of this afternoon, the page’s timeline was outfitted with dates and trivia for every presidential inauguration in history, in most cases accompanied by an artistic rendering or photograph of the actual swearing-in ceremony.

In addition, both sources will feature the latest logistical information relevant to people planning to come to Washington, D.C., to attend the event.

“On behalf of all the members of JCCIC, it is my hope that bringing all this information together in one place for the first time online will be of ongoing benefit,” Schumer said.

The JCCIC is formed once every four years to coordinate and execute the inauguration of the next president. Though the process is largely staff-driven, historical precedent dictates that the Senator currently serving as chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee also takes on the role as chairman of the JCCIC — in this case, that’s Schumer.

The other members include Senate Rules and Administration ranking member Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Though the inauguration is supposed to take place on Jan. 20, this year that date falls on a Sunday, so the ceremony will occur on Monday, Jan. 21. It will be only the seventh time in history that the mandated inauguration date has fallen on a Sunday and the second time the event will coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Recent Stories

US officials mark one year since ‘devastating’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel

Two abortion rulings could weigh into elections in Georgia, Texas

Former Rep. David Hobson, longtime appropriator, is dead at 87

Congressional estimators find sharply lower revenue take from Harris tax plans

Supreme Court to hear arguments over ‘ghost gun’ regulation

Biden makes formal plea to Congress for disaster loan funds