Congress passes four types of legislative measures: bills, joint resolutions, concurrent resolutions, and simple resolutions. They look similar and follow similar procedures, but they carry very different legal weight and serve different purposes. Understanding the differences explains why some congressional actions require presidential signature and others don't — and why a bill to reverse an executive agency rule looks different from a bill to fund the government.
Bills (H.R. and S.)
Bills are the standard vehicle for legislation: general laws, appropriations, authorization of programs. A bill requires passage by both chambers in identical form and presidential signature (or override) to become law. Most of what LegislationPatch tracks is standard bills — H.R. for bills originating in the House, S. for Senate-originated bills.
Joint Resolutions (H.J.Res. and S.J.Res.)
Joint resolutions require passage by both chambers and presidential signature or override, just like bills. For almost all legal purposes, a joint resolution and a bill are identical. The choice between the two is usually a matter of convention: joint resolutions are typically used for temporary or emergency legislation, continuing appropriations, and — critically — to disapprove rules issued by executive agencies under the Congressional Review Act.
Constitutional amendments are an exception. A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires two-thirds of both chambers to pass but does not require the President's signature — it goes directly to the states for ratification. This is one of the very few instances where a legislative measure that requires both-chamber agreement bypasses the President entirely.
Congressional Review Act disapprovals — used to strike down executive agency rules — always use joint resolutions. The CRA allows Congress to nullify recently issued regulations through a joint resolution that, once signed by the President, voids the rule as if it had never been issued. H.J.Res. 140 in the 119th Congress, which cancelled the BLM's Boundary Waters mining ban, followed this procedure.
Authorizations for the use of military force (AUMFs) are typically joint resolutions, given the temporal and contingent nature of the authority they grant.
Concurrent Resolutions (H.Con.Res. and S.Con.Res.)
Concurrent resolutions require passage by both chambers but do not go to the President. They don't have the force of law. Instead, they express the sense of Congress, address matters of internal congressional procedure, or establish the congressional budget framework.
The annual budget resolution is a concurrent resolution — H.Con.Res. or S.Con.Res. — not a bill. This is why budget resolutions don't go to the President for signature and why they don't have the force of law themselves. They're a planning document that sets the framework within which appropriations and reconciliation must operate, not a legally binding spending command. The spending authority comes from the subsequent appropriations bills that are regular bills signed into law.
Concurrent resolutions are also used to express the sense of Congress on international events, adjust enrolled bills for technical corrections, and set the congressional calendar.
Simple Resolutions (H.Res. and S.Res.)
Simple resolutions are internal matters — adopted by only one chamber, not the other. They don't go to the President and have no legal force outside the chamber that passes them. The House uses H.Res. to set the rules for debating a specific bill (a "special rule" from the Rules Committee is a simple resolution). The Senate uses S.Res. to establish select committees, express Senate-only views, and handle internal Senate business.
Why the Distinction Matters
When you see a measure labeled H.J.Res. in our database, you're looking at something that has essentially the same legal effect as a bill — it can create or annul law, requires presidential action, and goes through both chambers. H.Con.Res. measures, by contrast, don't create law regardless of how many votes they get. They express congressional sentiment but Congress's sentiment only becomes law when both chambers pass it as a bill or joint resolution and the President signs it.