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.

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.

The objection by Maine Senator Edmund Muskie and Michigan Representative James G. O'Hara was subsequently defeated.

Representative Scott Perry (PA-10) and Senator Josh Hawley (Missouri) objected to Pennsylvania electoral vote certification, for the fourth.

[6] Notably, Democratic members of the House attempted unsuccessfully to object to the certification of electoral votes from the 2000 presidential election, with outgoing vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore overruling multiple objections to the controversial 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 the electoral votes from multiple states after the 2016 presidential election.

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 the prime minister.

The first two presidents, George Washington and John Adams, delivered the speech in person before both houses of Congress, but that practice was discontinued by Thomas Jefferson, who considered 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.

[9] Besides State of the Union addresses, inaugurals and counting of electoral votes, joint sessions or meetings usually fall into one of several topics.

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu made four joint addresses to Congress, more than any other foreign dignitary (1996,[10] 2011,[11] 2015,[12] 2024[13]).

[16] The first foreign dignitary to address a joint meeting of Congress was David Kalakaua, King of the Hawaiian Islands, on December 18, 1874,[17] followed by Ambassador André de La Boulaye of France who addressed a joint session on May 20, 1934, to memorialize the centennial anniversary of the death of Marquis de Lafayette.

[19] 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.

Congress has also met to memorialize Vice President James Sherman and the Marquis de Lafayette, as well as twice outside Washington, once in Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 16, 1987, the bicentennial of the Connecticut Compromise during the Constitutional Convention that determined the structure of Congress,[21] and once in Federal Hall in New York City on September 6, 2002 to memorialize the victims of the September 11 attacks in advance of their first anniversary.