The Hill News

The Democratic and Republican senators from Illinois will sit together at the State of the Union address later this month, their offices announced Wednesday. 



In sitting together, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) will break a longstanding tradition of members of Congress sitting only with members of their party during the annual presidential address.

A spokesman for Durbin's office confirmed the seating plans today.



In recent weeks, Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) have been circulating a letter to members of Congress proposing to sit together during the State of the Union address. Some 50 members of Congress have signed the letter supporting bipartisan seating. 



Despite pledging to sit together at the State of the Union, neither Illinois lawmaker has signed the letter. Other legislators have said they are open to bipartisan seating at the State of the Union but h! ave not signed the letter or formally announced plans to sit with a member of the opposing party. 



The push for bipartisan seating at the State of the Union is meant to display a cooling down of what some consider unnecessarily heated rhetoric in politics lately.