Joint resolution

While either a bill or joint resolution can be used to create a law, the two generally have different purposes. Bills are generally used to add, repeal, or amend laws codified in the United States Code or Statutes at Large, and provide policy and program authorizations. Regular annual appropriations are enacted through bills. Conversely, joint resolutions generally are vehicles for purposes such as:

• Authorizing small appropriations
• For continuing resolutions, which extend appropriation levels adopted in a prior fiscal year, when one or more of the annual appropriations acts have been temporarily delayed from becoming law on time
• Creating temporary commissions or other ad hoc bodies (e.g., the 9/11 Commission)
• Creating temporary exceptions to existing law, such as joint resolutions providing a day for counting electoral votes or providing for a Saxbe fix reducing the pay of an office so that a member of Congress may avoid the Ineligibility Clause
• Declaring war
• Repealing federal regulations issued by government agencies, through the Congressional Review Act
• Terminating national emergency declarations
• Amending the Constitution of the United States