Joint session of theUnited States Congress | |
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| Seats | 535 voting members
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House of Representatives political groups |
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| House of Representatives Chamber United States Capitol Washington, D.C. United States of America | |
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| United States Constitution | |
Ajoint session of the United States Congress is a gathering of members of thetwo chambers of thebicameral legislature of thefederal government of the United States: theSenate and theHouse of Representatives. Joint sessions can be held on any special occasion, but are required to be held when thepresident delivers aState of the Union address, when they gather to count and certify the votes of theElectoral College as thepresidential election, or when they convene on the occasion of apresidential inauguration. A joint meeting is usually a ceremonial or formal occasion and does not perform any legislative function, and no resolution is proposed nor vote taken.
Joint sessions and meetings are usually held in the Chamber of the House of Representatives, and are traditionally presided over by thespeaker of the House. However, the Constitution requires thevice president (aspresident of the Senate) to preside over the counting of electoral votes by Congress.
Since 1804, TheTwelfth Amendment has provided that thePresident of the Senate receives theElectoral College votes and opens them in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, who count the votes.[1] TheElectoral Count Act of 1887 requires the votes to be counted during a joint session on January 6 following the meetings of the presidential electors.[2] The act also specifies that the president of the Senate presides over the session.[3] TheTwentieth Amendment now provides that the newly elected Congress counts the votes. Until 1936, the outgoing Congress counted the electoral votes.
The joint session to count electoral votes is held at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time on January 6 in the Chamber of the House of Representatives.[3] The sitting vice president is expected to preside, but in several cases thepresidentpro tempore of the Senate has chaired the proceedings instead. The vice president and thespeaker of the House sit at the podium, with the vice president in the seat of the speaker of the House. Senate pages bring in the two mahogany boxes containing each state's certified vote and place them on tables in front of the senators and representatives. Each chamber appoints two tellers to count the vote (normally one member of each political party). Relevant portions of the Certificate of Vote are read for each state, in alphabetical order. Members of Congress can object to any state's vote count, provided that the objection is supported by at least one fifth of the members of each house of Congress. A successful objection will be followed by separate debate and votes on the objection in each chamber of Congress. The successful vote by both chambers is required to toss out that state's vote count.
Objections to the electoral vote count are rarely raised, and only four have successfully occurred since the current procedure was implemented by the Electoral Count Act, two initiated by Democrats and two initiated by Republicans.[4] The first was in 1969 regarding the vote offaithless electorLloyd W. Bailey of North Carolina, who was pledged to vote forRichard Nixon but instead voted forGeorge Wallace. The objection by Maine SenatorEdmund Muskie and Michigan RepresentativeJames G. O'Hara was subsequently defeated. The second was in 2005, when Ohio RepresentativeStephanie Tubbs Jones joined with California SenatorBarbara Boxer toobject to the entire slate of electors from Ohio following controversies regarding voting in the state during the2004 United States presidential election. The objection was defeated by wide margins in the House and Senate.[5] The third and fourth occurred in 2021. RepresentativePaul Gosar ofArizona's 4th congressional district and SenatorTed Cruz ofTexas successfully raised an objection to the certification of electoral votes from theelection in Arizona, for the third. RepresentativeScott Perry (PA-10) and SenatorJosh Hawley (Missouri) objected to Pennsylvania electoral vote certification, for the fourth. Both objections were defeated by large margins in the House and Senate, althoughover 125 Republicans voted for each objection. The third objection was interrupted by the2021 United States Capitol attack, leading SenatorKelly Loeffler (Georgia) to withdraw her objection to Georgia electoral vote certification.[6]
Notably, Democratic members of the House attempted unsuccessfully to object to the certification of electoral votes from the2000 presidential election, with outgoing vice president and Democratic presidential candidateAl Gore overruling multiple objections to thecontroversial election count from Florida due to the lack of a senator signing on to any of them.[7] Similarly, in 2017, Democratic representatives attempted unsuccessfully to object to theelectoral votes from multiple states after the2016 presidential election.[8]
If there are no objections or all objections are overruled, the presiding officer declares the result of the vote and states who is elected president and vice president. The senators then depart from the House Chamber.
At some time during the first two months of each session, the president customarily delivers the State of the Union address, a speech in which an assessment is made of the state of the country, and the president's legislative agenda is outlined. The speech is modeled on theSpeech from the Throne, given by theBritish monarch. There is a major difference, in that the president is the principal author of his own State of the Union address, while the Speech from the Throne is customarily written by theprime minister.
The Constitution of the United States requires that the president "shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union," but does not specify whether the information should be given in a speech or a written report. The first two presidents,George Washington andJohn Adams, delivered the speech in person before both houses of Congress, but that practice was discontinued byThomas Jefferson, who considered it too monarchical and sent written reports instead. Written reports were standard until 1913, whenWoodrow Wilson reestablished the practice of personally attending to deliver the speech. Since then, on a number of occasions presidents have presented a written report, usually for medical reasons.[9]
Besides State of the Union addresses, inaugurals and counting of electoral votes, joint sessions or meetings usually fall into one of several topics.
In addition to a State of the Union address, presidents address Congress on specific subjects. The first such speech was delivered byJohn Adams on the subject ofU.S. relations with France. The most popular subjects for such addresses areeconomic,military andforeign policy issues.
In addition to bringing back the tradition of delivering a State of the Union address,Woodrow Wilson was the first president since John Adams to address Congress on specific topics. He delivered 17 such speeches, more than any other president.
Newly inaugurated presidents may deliver an address to a joint session of Congress, similar to a State of the Union, shortly after they enter office; however, this speech is not considered an official "State of the Union".
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Joint meetings have been held more than a hundred times to enable foreignheads of state orheads of government to address Congress. Leaders of 48 countries have addressed Congress at a joint meeting:Israel leads the list with ten joint meetings addresses by heads of state or dignitaries. Other leading countries are:France (9),United Kingdom (8),Mexico (7),South Korea (7),India (6),Italy (6),Ireland (6),Germany, including West Germany and unified Germany (5),Australia (4),Canada (3),Argentina (3),Philippines (3),Japan (3),Spain (2),Ukraine (2).
Prime Minister of IsraelBenjamin Netanyahu made four joint addresses to Congress, more than any other foreign dignitary (1996,[10] 2011,[11] 2015,[12] 2024[13]).Prime Minister of the United KingdomWinston Churchill addressed joint meetings of Congress on three occasions (1941,1943,1952).Prime Minister of IndiaNarendra Modi andPrime Minister of IsraelYitzhak Rabin addressed joint meetings of Congress on two occasions (Modi: 2016,[14] 2023;[15] Rabin: 1976 and 1994) as didNelson Mandela ofSouth Africa (1990 and 1994).[16]
The first foreign dignitary to address a joint meeting of Congress wasDavid Kalakaua, King of the Hawaiian Islands, on December 18, 1874,[17] followed by AmbassadorAndré de La Boulaye of France who addressed a joint session on May 20, 1934, to memorialize the centennial anniversary of the death ofMarquis de Lafayette.[18] The first non-dignitary to address a joint meeting of Congress wasPolishSolidarity leaderLech Wałęsa in 1989.Nelson Mandela, then deputy president of the African National Congress addressed a joint meeting in 1990.[19]
Twice have joint meetings been attended by dignitaries from two countries: On September 18, 1978, when Congress was addressed byEgyptian PresidentAnwar Sadat andIsraeli Prime MinisterMenachem Begin, and on July 26, 1994, when Congress was addressed byKing Hussein of Jordan andIsraeli Prime MinisterYitzhak Rabin.
John Howard,Prime Minister of Australia, had originally been scheduled to address Congress on September 12, 2001, but his address was postponed due to theSeptember 11 terrorist attacks the previous day. Howard's address was rescheduled for June 12, 2002, where he spoke about the attacks he had witnessed 9 months earlier. Howard was acknowledged with a standing ovation and describes the occasion as a "moving moment."[20]
The most recent addresses by foreign dignitaries were given byPrime Minister of IsraelBenjamin Netanyahu, on July 24, 2024,Japanese Prime MinisterFumio Kishida, on April 11, 2024, andPresident of IsraelIsaac Herzog, on July 19, 2023.
All foreign heads of state and heads of government are presented officially to Congress in the same manner as the president during theState of the Union Address and are introduced by the speaker bytheir diplomatic style of address, followed by their name and respective office.
Joint meetings are sometimes called to hear addresses bygenerals,admirals, or other military leaders. Perhaps the most notable example isDouglas MacArthur'sfarewell address to Congress. In concluding the speech he recalled an old army song which contained the line "old soldiers never die; they just fade away". He then said, "And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Good-bye".
Six times in the first years of theSpace Age, Congress jointly met to be addressed byastronauts after their trips in space.
Nine times, Congress has jointly met to hold a memorial service for a deceased president or former president. Congress has also met to memorialize Vice PresidentJames Sherman and theMarquis de Lafayette, as well as twice outside Washington, once inIndependence Hall in Philadelphia on July 16, 1987, the bicentennial of theConnecticut Compromise during theConstitutional Convention that determined the structure of Congress,[21] and once inFederal Hall in New York City on September 6, 2002 to memorialize the victims of the September 11 attacks in advance of their first anniversary.[22]
On December 18, 1874,Kalākaua was the first person in history received by theUnited States Congress in a joint meeting. This differs from a joint session of Congress, which requires the adoption of a concurrent resolution. Joint meetings of Congress are rare, and another one was not called until the 1900 Centennial of the Capital City.[30]
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