[Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and the Rules of the House of Representatives, 117th Congress]
[117th Congress]
[House Document 116-177]
[Jeffersons Manual of ParliamentaryPractice]
[Pages 209-211]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          sec. xxi--resolutions



Sec. 395. Orders and resolutions of the House.

  When  the 
House commands, it is by an ``order.'' But fact, principles, and their 
own opinions and purposes, are expressed in the form of resolutions.



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to the Senate (i.e., a call for their sense by the President, on account 
of doubt in his mind, according to clause 5 of rule XXII) the decision 
was overruled. Jour., Senate, June 1, 1796. I presume the doubt was, 
whether an allowance of money could be made otherwise than by bill.

  A resolution for an allowance of money to the clerks being moved, it 
was objected to as not in order, and so ruled by the Chair; but on 
appeal



Sec. 396. Concurrent resolutions of the two Houses.

  In   the 
modern practice concurrent resolutions have been developed as a means of 
expressing fact, principles, opinions, and purposes of the two Houses 
(II, 1566, 1567). Joint committees are authorized by resolutions of this 
form (III, 1998, 1999), and they are used in authorizing correction of 
bills agreed to by both Houses (VII, 1042), amendment of enrolled bills 
(VII, 1041), amendment of conference reports (VIII, 3308), requests for 
return of bills sent to the President (VII, 1090, 1091), authorizing the 
printing of certain enrolled bills by hand in the remaining days of a 
session (Dec. 20, 1982, p. 32875), providing for joint session to 
receive a message from the President (VIII, 3335, 3336), authorizing the 
printing of congressional documents (July 1, 1969, p. 17948); and fixing 
time for final adjournment (VIII, 3365). The Congressional Budget Act of 
1974 (P.L. 93-344) provides for the adoption by both Houses of 
concurrent resolutions on the budget that become binding on both Houses 
with respect to congressional budget procedures (see Sec. 1127, infra). 
A concurrent resolution is binding on neither House until agreed to by 
both (IV, 3379), and, because not legislative in nature, is not sent to 
the President for approval (IV, 3483). A concurrent resolution is not a 
bill or joint resolution within the meaning of former clause 5(b) of 
rule XXI (requiring a three-fifths vote for approval of such a measure 
if carrying an increase in a rate of tax on income) (Speaker Gingrich, 
May 18, 1995, p. 13499). In the 106th Congress the Senate neglected to 
adopt a House concurrent resolution vacating signatures of the Presiding 
Officers on an enrolled bill and laying that bill on the table as 
overtaken by another enactment (H. Con. Res. 234, adopted by the House 
on Nov. 18, 1999, p. 30719). The Congress subsequently enacted section 
1401 of the Miscellaneous Appropriations Act of 2001, which adopted that 
concurrent resolution (as enacted by P.L. 106-554). For a concurrent 
resolution requesting that the Secretary of the Senate return an 
enrolled bill to the House, providing that the Speaker's signature be 
rescinded upon its return, and providing for the subsequent reenrollment 
of the bill with a specified correction, see S. Con. Res. 63, 112th 
Congress, adopted by the House on Dec. 19, 2012, p. 17752.



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for approval and have the full force of law. They are used for what may 
be called the incidental, unusual, or inferior purposes of legislating 
(IV, 3372), as extending the national thanks to individuals (IV, 3370), 
the invitation to Lafayette to visit America (V, 7082, footnote), notice 
to a foreign government of the abrogation of a treaty (V, 6270), 
declaration of intervention in Cuba (V, 6321), correction of an error in 
an existing act of legislation (IV, 3519; VII, 1092), enlargement of 
scope of inquiries provided by law (VII, 1040), election of managers for 
National Soldiers' Homes (V, 7336), special appropriations for minor and 
incidental purposes (V, 7319), continuing appropriations (H.J. Res. 790, 
P.L. 91-33), establishing the date for convening of Congress (H.J. Res. 
1041, P.L. 91-182), extending the submission date under law for 
transmittal of a report to Congress by the President (H.J. Res. 635, 
P.L. 97-469), and extending the termination date for a law (H.J. Res. 
864, P.L. 91-59). At one time they were used for purposes of general 
legislation; but the two Houses finally concluded that a bill was the 
proper instrumentality for this purpose (IV, 3370-3373). A joint 
resolution has been changed to a bill by amendment (IV, 3374), but in 
the later practice it has become impracticable to do so.


Sec. 397. Joint resolutions.

  Another  development of the 
modern practice is the joint resolution, which is a bill so far as the 
processes of the Congress in relation to it are concerned (IV, 3375; 
VII, 1036). With the exception of joint resolutions proposing amendments 
to the Constitution (V, 7029), all these resolutions are sent to the 
President





  Where a choice between a concurrent resolution and a joint resolution 
is not dictated by law, the House by its vote on consideration of a 
measure decides which is the appropriate vehicle (and a point of order 
does not lie that a concurrent rather than a joint resolution would be 
more appropriate to express the sense of the Congress on an issue) 
(Precedents (Wickham), ch. 6, Sec. 4.1).
* * * * *