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Pa. Lawmakers Divided Over President's State Of The Union

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WASHINGTON (KDKA/AP) - President Donald Trump delivered his first State of the Union address Tuesday night.

The President challenged Congress to make good on a long-standing promise to fix the immigration system. Republican Congressman Keith Rothfus of Beaver praised the President's message.

"It's a conversation that this country has to have," Rothfus said Tuesday night. "I have long talked about the need to secure our border. I look at the drugs coming in to the United States from Mexico. All the heroin, virtually all the heroin we have is coming from Mexico. If that's not a reason to secure the border I don't know what is."

While Republicans were boisterous and bouncing up and down for standing ovations during President Trump's address, the other half of the chamber was somber and still. Democrats were barely reacting to Trump's remarks, though they did join in applause for emergency responders and veterans.

"You know I was somewhat disappointed when I saw a lot of people just sitting and not applauding at all," Rothfus said. "And it was sad because there were certain things you could have applauded on."

President Trump called on Congress to pass legislation to generate at least $1.5 trillion to upgrade the nation's roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

Republican U.S. Senator Pat Toomey did not appear ready to commit to an infrastructure bill.

"I was heartened to hear him say we must streamline the approval process for new road and bridge projects," Toomey said in a statement Tuesday night, "and I look forward to reviewing in detail proposed infrastructure legislation."

In a statement released Tuesday night, Democrat U.S. Senator Bob Casey also called for action on infrastructure funding. But he didn't stop there.

"Congress should immediately pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan that actually invests in our communities, instead of just giving more tax cuts to wealthy developers and big corporations," Casey said. "Congress should also pass commonsense, bipartisan legislation to reduce the cost of health care instead of sabotaging the current system and plotting to decimate Medicaid."

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto used social media to take some shots at the President Tuesday night. He retweeted old pictures of a beer protest and a whiskey dispenser to emphasize his point.

President Trump's first State of the Union is the most-tweeted joint address to Congress ever, according to Twitter.

The social network says 4.5 million tweets were sent around the annual event, surpassing last year's record of 3 million for Trump's first address to Congress - which wasn't technically a State of the Union.

(TM and © Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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