JOINT RESOLUTION
A type of measure that Congress may consider and act upon, the other types being bills, concurrent resolutions, and simple resolutions, in addition to treaties in the Senate.
Like a bill, a joint resolution must be approved, in identical form, by both the House and the Senate, and signed by the president. Like a bill, it has the force of law if approved.
A joint resolution is distinguished from a bill
by the circumstances in which it is generally
used. Although no rules stipulate whether a
proposed law must be drafted as a bill or a joint
resolution, certain traditions are generally fol-
lowed. A joint resolution is often used when
Congress needs to pass legislation to solve a lim-
ited or temporary problem. For example, it is
used as a temporary measure to provide contin-
uing appropriations for government programs
when annual appropriations bills have not yet
been enacted. This type of joint resolution is
called a continuing resolution.
Joint resolutions are also often used to
address a single important issue. For example,
between 1955 and January 1991, on six occasions
Congress passed joint resolutions authorizing or
approving presidential requests to use armed
forces to defend specific foreign countries, such
as Taiwan, or to protect U.S. interests in specific
regions, such as the Middle East. Two of these
resolutions—the TONKIN GULF RESOLUTION of
1964 (78 Stat. 384) and the Persian Gulf Resolu-
tion of 1991 (105 Stat. 3)—were used, in part, to
justify U.S. participation in a full-scale war.
Another use of joint resolutions is to pro-
pose amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Res-
olutions proposing constitutional amendments
must be approved by two-thirds of both houses.
They do not require the president’s signature,
but instead become law when they are ratified by
three-fourths of the states.
Finally, joint resolutions are commonly used
to establish commemorative days.Of the ninety-
nine joint resolutions that became law in the
103d Congress, for example, eighty-three were
