The inaugural platform for the 59th Presidential Inauguration Ceremonies on January 20, 2021, (only 76 days from now) at West Front, U.S. Capitol Hill is now well ongoing, even if the traditional "first nail" ceremony that commences the inauguration construction was canceled.
The said ceremony is when the Architect of the Capitol is joined by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies or JCCIC, the committee responsible for inauguration planning and executions drives in the first nail to mark the beginning of the building of the inaugural platform.
Roy Blunt, R-Mo, Chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration, and the joint committee leader for the second time now clarified that although the pandemic is noticeably complicating their inauguration preparations, the cancellation was not due to it. They had to cancel since it accorded with the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's remembrance period. They had to start the construction on time as the platform is built from scratch; thus, they cannot afford to move on a later date, especially that the podium is more than 10,000 square feet huge as it will be holding more than 1,600 swearing-in ceremony participants customarily.
Further, Blunt said, "We'll continue to plan for and order for, and build a platform for, a more traditional inauguration, and we'll just have to see what the world looks like, about January 1, it would be easier to scale down the inauguration than to scale it up at the very last minute."
Part of the inauguration groundwork is the precautionary measures they had to implement against the virus. Blunt, who is an advocate of vigorous mandatory testing for everyone on Capitol Hill, assures the public in a video message that "the deliberations for the January 2021 induction will include whether there needs to be "testing and/or tracing" in place in the event of COVID-19 exposure at the ceremonies. The White House has used narrow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine when to notify contacts, but since the inaugural ceremony itself traditionally takes place on Capitol grounds, the Office of the Attending Physician would most likely take point."
Blunt added, "This is the bipartisan, congressional effort which is paid for by taxpayers. It's the one thing that has to happen. It's not privately funded." He further says, "That might take extra money, but essentially we're working in a bipartisan way with the budget we've traditionally had."
Towards the end, Blunt said, "The inaugural events are not only a hallmark of American governance and democracy, but also fulfill our constitutional duty, and beyond that, they give assurance of our continued and unbroken commitment to continuity, to stability, to perseverance and most importantly to democracy."
Earlier, it has been announced that President Donald Trump won the state of Arkansas as well as Alabama in his bid for reelection. However, with more votes coming in, the future president of America remains unclear.
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