PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/Congressional resolution

How to Cite a Congressional Resolution in MLA 9

An MLA 9 Works Cited entry for a congressional resolution starts with the government and the chamber as the author (United States, Congress, Senate or House), then gives the resolution's title in plain type, the website in italics (Congress.gov) and the URL, and ends with the Congress, the session, the resolution spelled out (Senate Resolution 201 or Senate Joint Resolution 4), and its status and date: passed 17 Sept. 2020 for one that was agreed to, considered and the date it was introduced for one that wasn't. The in-text citation is the author element: (United States, Congress, Senate).

The format

United States, Congress, Senate [or House]. Title of the Resolution. Congress.gov, URL. #th Congress, #st session, Senate Resolution #, passed Day Mon. Year.

PERRLA MLA Experts ยท Updated October 30, 2026
Checked against the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Choose Bills & Resolutions (under Legal References), then the choice that matches your resolution.

  • A simple resolution the Senate or House agreed to: pick An enacted federal bill or resolution, then Senate bill or resolution or House of Representatives bill or resolution. PERRLA writes Senate Resolution or House Resolution and passed before the date. Read it in the Congressional Record? Add the Congressional Record Volume and the Record Starting Page Number, use the link to the Record page you read, and type GovInfo in Website Name.
  • A simple resolution that was never agreed to: pick An unenacted federal bill or resolution, then Senate resolution or House of Representatives resolution. PERRLA writes considered before the date.
  • A joint resolution that hasn't become law: pick An unenacted federal bill or resolution, then Joint Senate bill or resolution or Joint House bill or resolution. PERRLA writes Senate Joint Resolution or House Joint Resolution.

For every kind, fill in the Bill or Resolution Title, the Bill or Resolution Number (the number only), the Congress number in Congressional Session (118 or 118th), the session in Congressional Number Session (1st or 2nd), the date, the URL (Web address), and the site's name in Website Name (Congress.gov). PERRLA sets the website in italics as the container. MLA needs the title, so copy it from the resolution's Congress.gov page, even when it's a long description like "A resolution supporting the goals and ideals of National Nurses Week."

Have the legal citation from your reading, like S.J. Res. 4, 118th Cong. (2023)? Paste it into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA recognizes the resolution, fills in the kind, the number, the Congress, and the year, and adds the Congress.gov link. Then add the title, the session, the month and day, and Congress.gov in Website Name before you save. A joint resolution that became law is cited as a law: choose Statutes and cite its public law number.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.

The parts of the works cited entry

1. Author

A resolution comes from a government body, so MLA lists the government first, then each smaller unit, separated by commas: the country, Congress, and the chamber where the resolution was introduced. End with a period.

United States, Congress, Senate.

Use House for a resolution numbered H.Res. or H.J.Res. on Congress.gov, and Senate for S.Res. or S.J.Res. Don't list the sponsor as the author.

2. Title

Give the resolution's title as Congress.gov shows it, in title case and plain type, with no italics and no quotation marks. Most resolutions have no short name, only a description of what they do. In MLA, that description is the title, so use it.

A Resolution Supporting the Goals and Ideals of National Nurses Week, to Be Observed from May 6 through May 12, 2023.

MLA capitalizes the first and last words and every major word, and lowercases articles, prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions in the middle, so through and during stay lowercase.

3. Website or Congressional Record

Where you read the resolution is its container. For Congress.gov, give the site's name in italics, a comma, and the URL without https://, then a period.

Congress.gov, www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/908.

Read an agreed-to resolution's text in the Congressional Record, the official daily record of what Congress says and does? Then the Record is the container: its name in italics, vol. and the volume, and p. and the page, Senate pages starting with S and House pages with H. Add the site where you read it, like GovInfo, and the URL.

Congressional Record, vol. 164, p. S7933. GovInfo, www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2018-12-19/html/CREC-2018-12-19-pt1-PgS7933.htm.

4. Congress and session

The last part of the entry identifies the resolution. Start with the number of the Congress, as an ordinal, with the word Congress spelled out, then the session. Each Congress lasts two years and usually has one session a year, and resolution numbers start over with each new Congress.

115th Congress, 2nd session,

MLA uses ordinary ordinals: 2nd and 103rd, not the legal forms 2d and 103d you see in APA. The resolution's text shows both at the top.

5. Resolution number

Spell out the kind of resolution, then give the number. MLA writes the words out instead of the abbreviations Congress.gov and legal citations use.

  • Simple resolution (one chamber speaking for itself, never sent to the president): Senate Resolution 737 or House Resolution 908. Congress.gov writes S.Res. and H.Res.
  • Joint resolution (it goes through both chambers and to the president, like a bill): Senate Joint Resolution 4 or House Joint Resolution 25. Congress.gov writes S.J.Res. and H.J.Res.

Senate Resolution 737,

Resolutions are numbered separately from bills, so Senate Resolution 201 and Senate Bill 201 are two different documents.

6. Status and date

End with where the resolution stands and the date, written day, month, year, with the month abbreviated (except May, June, and July), then a period. For one the chamber agreed to, write passed and the date it was agreed to. For one that never passed, PERRLA writes considered and the date it was introduced.

passed 19 Dec. 2018.

A joint resolution that passes both chambers and is signed becomes a law, so cite it as a law by its public law number, not as a resolution.

Examples

A House resolution that was agreed to

The House resolution condemning anti-Asian sentiment related to COVID-19, agreed to by a vote of 243 to 164 on 17 September 2020, in the second session of the 116th Congress. Read on Congress.gov, so the website is the container.

  • In-text citation(United States, Congress, House)
  • Narrative citationIn House Resolution 908, the United States House of Representatives condemned …

A Senate resolution read in the Congressional Record

The 2018 Senate resolution honoring the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, which enrolled more than 120,000 women in nurse training between 1943 and 1948. The Senate agreed to it on 19 December 2018, the day it was submitted, and its text is on page S7933 of volume 164 of the Congressional Record, read here on GovInfo. Its title is a long description, and in MLA that description is the title.

  • In-text citation(United States, Congress, Senate)
  • Narrative citationIn Senate Resolution 737, the United States Senate recognized …

A Senate resolution that was never agreed to

A resolution supporting National Nurses Week, introduced on 9 May 2023. It was referred to the Senate's health committee and never agreed to, so its status is considered, with the date it was introduced. In PERRLA, choose Senate resolution under An unenacted federal bill or resolution.

  • In-text citation(United States, Congress, Senate)
  • Narrative citationSenate Resolution 201, introduced in the United States Senate, called for …

A Senate joint resolution that got a vote and failed

A 2023 joint resolution to remove the ratification deadline for the Equal Rights Amendment, introduced on 24 January 2023. It reached the Senate floor in April, but the cloture vote to take it up failed 51 to 47, short of the 60 votes needed. A vote doesn't make a resolution law, so it's cited like any other joint resolution that didn't pass.

  • In-text citation(United States, Congress, Senate)
  • Narrative citationSenate Joint Resolution 4, introduced in the United States Senate, would have removed …

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation points to the first words of the Works Cited entry. For a resolution, that's the author element, the government and the chamber, not the resolution's number and not a year. Resolutions have no page numbers to add, unless you quote one from a page of the Congressional Record.

  • Parenthetical: (United States, Congress, Senate) or (United States, Congress, House)
  • Name in your sentence: the smoothest choice. Name the chamber and the resolution, and leave the parentheses off: In House Resolution 908, the United States House of Representatives condemned anti-Asian sentiment related to COVID-19.
  • More than one resolution from the same chamber: every entry starts the same way, so add the resolution's number, or a short form of its title, after the author: (United States, Congress, Senate, Senate Resolution 737).

In your sentences, spell the kind of resolution out, Senate Joint Resolution 4 rather than S.J.Res.4, and keep it in plain type.

Common mistakes

  • S.J. Res. 4, 118th Cong. (2023).United States, Congress, Senate. A Joint Resolution Removing the Deadline for the Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Congress.gov, www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/4. 118th Congress, 1st session, Senate Joint Resolution 4, considered 24 Jan. 2023.That's the legal citation form APA uses. MLA follows its own template: the government author, the title, the website as the container, and the resolution spelled out at the end.
  • 116th Congress, H.Res.908,116th Congress, 2nd session, House Resolution 908,MLA spells out House Resolution instead of Congress.gov's H.Res. abbreviation, and gives the session after the Congress.
  • United States, Congress, Senate. Senate Joint Resolution 4 ... passed 27 Apr. 2023.... 118th Congress, 1st session, Senate Joint Resolution 4, considered 24 Jan. 2023.Getting a vote isn't the same as passing. S.J.Res.4 failed a cloture vote, so it never passed and its status isn't passed.
  • United States, Congress, House. House Joint Resolution 7. 118th Congress, House Joint Resolution 7, passed 10 Apr. 2023.United States, Congress. Public Law 118-3. United States Statutes at Large, vol. 137, 2023, p. 6.H.J.Res.7, which ended the COVID-19 national emergency, passed both chambers and was signed on 10 April 2023. A joint resolution that's signed is a law, so cite it as a public law.
  • (S. Res. 737, 2018)(United States, Congress, Senate)That's APA. MLA's in-text citation points to the first element of the entry, the author, and MLA citations don't take the year.

Quick checklist

  • Simple or joint? Senate Resolution and House Resolution, or Senate Joint Resolution and House Joint Resolution
  • A joint resolution that became law gets cited as a law
  • United States, Congress, and the chamber as the author
  • The title from Congress.gov, in plain type and title case
  • Congress.gov in italics and the URL, or the Congressional Record with vol. and p.
  • The Congress and the session as ordinals
  • passed and the date for an agreed-to resolution, considered and the date for one that wasn't

Questions students ask

What's the difference between a simple resolution and a joint resolution?

A simple resolution (Senate Resolution or House Resolution) is one chamber speaking for itself: honoring someone, stating an opinion, or setting its own rules. It never goes to the president and never becomes law. A joint resolution (Senate Joint Resolution or House Joint Resolution) works like a bill. It passes both chambers and goes to the president, and if it's signed, it's a law. Joint resolutions that propose constitutional amendments go to the states instead.

How do I know whether a resolution was agreed to?

Check the resolution's page on Congress.gov. If it passed, its actions say so, as in "Passed/agreed to in Senate," with the date. A resolution whose latest action is "Referred to the Committee" was never agreed to.

Do I include a resolution's long title in MLA?

Yes. MLA's template needs a title, and for most resolutions the long description Congress.gov shows, like "A resolution supporting the goals and ideals of National Nurses Week," is the only title there is. Put it in title case and plain type. Your in-text citation uses the author, so the long title never ends up in your sentences unless you put it there.

How do I cite a concurrent resolution?

A concurrent resolution (S.Con.Res. or H.Con.Res. on Congress.gov) is passed by both chambers but isn't sent to the president, so it isn't a law. In MLA it follows the same pattern: the chamber that introduced it as the author, the title, the website, then Senate Concurrent Resolution or House Concurrent Resolution and the number. PERRLA's form has no concurrent resolution choice.

Should I cite the Congressional Record or Congress.gov?

Cite the one you read. MLA cites the version you consulted. If you read the resolution's text in the Congressional Record, give the Record's volume and page. If you read it on Congress.gov, give the website and its link.

Where does a resolution go on my Works Cited page?

Under U, for United States, with your other federal sources. When several entries start with the same government name, order them by the next words, so United States, Congress, House comes before United States, Congress, Senate, and entries from the same chamber go by their titles.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapter 5 (the core elements, containers, and government authors) and chapter 6 (in-text citations), and the MLA Style Center's post Documenting Legal Works in MLA Style (follow the MLA template; cite the version you consulted; names of laws and similar documents in plain type; its federal bill example from Congress.gov and its executive order example in the Federal Register). Example sources are the ones verified for the APA 7 page, with titles, dates, and sessions checked in each resolution's official bill status record and text on GovInfo, and the Congressional Record page checked in GovInfo (vol. 164, no. 200, 19 Dec. 2018, p. S7933).

PERRLA builds the resolution's Works Cited entry with the chamber as the author and the resolution spelled out, so you only fill in what's on its page.

Try PERRLA free for 7 days