Joint sessions of the United States Congress are the gatherings together of both houses of the United States Congress (the House of Representatives and Senate). Joint sessions are held on special occasions such as the State of the Union Address and presidential inaugurations.
Meetings of Congress for presidential inaugurations are a special case called formal joint gatherings, but may also be joint sessions if both houses are in session at the time.
Joint sessions and meetings are traditionally presided over by the Speaker of the House and take place at the House chamber. However, the Constitution requires the Vice President (as President of the Senate) to preside over the counting of electoral votes.
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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 presidents' legislative agenda is outlined. The speech is modeled on the Speech from the Throne, given by the British monarch. There is a major difference, however. The President is the principal author of his State of the Union message, while the Speech from the Throne is customarily written by the Prime 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 and John Adams, delivered the speech in person before both houses of Congress, but that practice was discontinued under Thomas Jefferson, who deemed it too monarchical and sent written reports instead. Written reports were standard until 1913, when Woodrow Wilson reestablished the practice of personally attending to deliver the speech. Few Presidents have deviated from this custom since.[1]
The Twelfth Amendment mandates that the Congress assemble in joint session to count the electoral votes and declare the winners of the election.[2] The session is ordinarily required to take place on January 6 in the calendar year immediately following the meetings of the presidential electors.[3] Since the Twentieth Amendment, the newly-elected House declares the winner of the election. In elections before 1936, the outgoing House counted the electoral votes.
The meeting is held at 1:00 p.m. in the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives.[3] The sitting Vice President is expected to preside, but in several cases the President pro tempore of the Senate has chaired the proceedings instead. The Vice President and the Speaker 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 house 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 member of each house of Congress. A successful objection will be followed by debate; however, objections to the electoral vote count are rarely raised, although it did occur during the vote count in 2001 after the close 2000 presidential election between Governor George W. Bush of Texas and the Vice President of the United States, Al Gore. Vice President Gore, who as Vice President was required to preside over his own Electoral College defeat (by five electoral votes), denied the objections, all of which were raised only by several House members and would have favored his candidacy, after no Senators would agree to jointly object. 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.
In addition to State of the Union Addresses, inaugurals and counting of electoral votes, Joint Sessions usually fall into one of several topics.
Foreign heads of state and heads of government from 48 countries have addressed joint meetings of Congress more than a hundred times. France and the United Kingdom lead the list with eight joint meeting addresses by heads of state or dignitaries. Other countries leading the list are: Israel (7), Mexico (7), Italy (6), Ireland (6), Germany, including West Germany and unified Germany (5), South Korea (4), India (4), Canada (3), Argentina (3), Australia (3), and the Philippines (3). Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill made three joint addresses to Congress, more than any other foreign dignitary (1941, 1943, and 1952). Prime Minister of Israel Yitzak Rabin addressed joint meetings of Congress on two occasions (1976 and 1994) as did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (1996 and 2011). Nelson Mandela of South Africa has also addressed Congress twice (1990 and 1994).[4]
Twice have joint meetings been attended by dignitaries from two countries: On September 18, 1978, when Congress was addressed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and on July 26, 1994, when Congress was addressed by King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Notably on September 11, 2001 John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia kept his appointment and attended a defiant joint session of Congress and was acknowledged with a standing ovation. John Howard describes this occasion as a "moving moment."[5]
The most recent address was given by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on May 24, 2011.[6]
All foreign heads of state are presented officially to Congress in the same manner as the President during the State of the Union Address.
In addition to State of the Union Addresses, Presidents deliver addresses to Congress on specific subjects. The first such speech was delivered by John Adams on the subject of U.S. relations with France. The most popular subjects for such addresses are economic, military and foreign policy issues.
In addition to bringing back the tradition of delivering a State of Union Address, Woodrow Wilson was the first President since John Adams to address Congress on specific topics. He delivered more such speeches, 17, than any other President.
Since 1981 some of these addresses, such as Bill Clinton's 1993 Economic Address, George W. Bush's Budget Message of 2001, and Barack Obama's joint session speech of 2009 are sometimes inaccurately labeled as State of Union Addresses.
Joint meetings are sometimes called to hear addresses by generals, admirals, or other military leaders. Perhaps the most notable example is Douglas MacArthur's farewell address to Congress.
Six times in the first years of the Space Age, Congress jointly met to be addressed by astronauts 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 President James Sherman and the Marquis de Lafayette.
Congress sometimes meets to mark the anniversary of a historical event or of a presidential birthday. The first such occasion was the centennial of George Washington's first inauguration in 1789. Congress has met to mark the centennial of the birth of each President since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, with the exception of Lyndon Johnson.