President Barack Obama will give his second to last State of the Union address Tuesday January 20. It will be his first before a Republican-led Congress. The White house has already released many of the proposals Mr. Obama will discuss in order to build momentum for the speech.

The names of some of the guests invited to the address have also been released. Mr. Obama announced them on his weekly radio and Internet address. Traditionally, the president invites certain people to sit in the audience with the first lady. The guests typically have personal stories that highlight major themes in the president’s speech. This time, they will be people who wrote to Mr. Obama over the past year to share their personal situations.

According to the White House, Mr. Obama will discuss the rising costs of education. Victor Fugate of Missouri is a participant in a new government program that caps monthly student loan payments. He is now able to manage his loans.

Mr. Obama will also discuss the economic revival of the country and how it was his decisions that helped reduce the devastation caused by the recession. Carolyn Reed of Colorado received a Small Business Administration loan, which allowed her to expand her sandwich shop chain and raise the wages of her hourly employees.

The ending of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will of course be mentioned during the discussion of the president’s foreign policy strategy. Jason Gibson of Ohio lost both of his legs during the war in Afghanistan. He is recovering and has a new daughter.

With many Republicans in the audience, Mr. Obama will most likely try to defend his recent spate of executive actions. He doing so, he will mention Ana Zamora, an immigrant who was brought to the US illegally as a child. She has benefited from the president’s program to defer deportations of eligible immigrants. Her parents are also now eligible for protection from deportation.

Additional topics of discussion will include paid sick leave for many workers, cutting the cost of mortgage insurance premiums for some home buyers, and pressing for cyber security legislation in the wake of the hacking on Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Whether or not Mr. Obama will address the issues currently being debated in Congress, such as the Keystone XL pipeline or the nuclear negotiations with Iran, remains to be seen.