Joint Committees are still used by Congress, but more for administrative purposes than for legislative or investigative goals. The congressional committee system has become so extensive that appropriate standing committees, already endowed with legislative and investigative authority, exist to take up matters as they arise. Members of standing committees are usually quick to point out that the creation of a new joint committee is both an unnecessary expenditure of funds and an unneeded strain on the schedules of Members of Congress who are already juggling too many committee assignments. Given the current climate of careful scrutiny of all expenditures by Congress on itself, convincing a majority of Members to allot funds for the creation of any new panel with space and staff requirements would require compelling reasons.

Also, jurisdictional disputes are common in Congress among committees, even on minor issues. If an issue rises to the level of discussing the creation of a joint committee, one can assume it is of sufficient political importance that "ownership", or jurisdiction, over the matter will be claimed by existing committees. In the case of a potential congressional investigation, extended disputes are almost certain. Investigations are difficult enough to conduct without partisan flare-ups in a single chamber. A joint effort would be even more difficult, for consensus would have to be sought among Members of two houses, as well as across party lines.

The Iran-Contra episode provides a recent example. Though no joint committee was created, in 1987 the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran and the Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition did merge their efforts to conduct joint hearings and share information. The hearings lasted over 40 days. They received some criticism on the grounds that the combined panels made for a long series of Members with statements and questions that severely taxed the stamina of witnesses and elongated each daily session. Members still sought to put their own views and questions on the record, even if it resulted in repetitive lines of inquiry. Although the goal of merging efforts was to avoid duplication, it is not clear from that experience that working together necessarily made the public parts of the process more efficient.

In the current Congress, there are four joint committees: the Joint Economic Committee, the Joint Committee on the Library, the Joint Committee on Printing, and the Joint Committee on Taxation. None of them have legislative authority. The last joint committee to have legislative authority was the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, which was terminated in 1977.

The Joint Committee on the Library is an administrative committee, primarily responsible for overseeing the sizeable budget and policies of the Library of Congress. Despite its name, however, the committee has other responsibilities, e.g. supervision of the National Botanic Garden, and the placement of statues and art work in the U.S. Capitol.

The Joint Committee on Printing also is administrative in function. It supervises the Government Printing Office, a very extensive operation which prints and distributes a vast array of federal government publications. It also issues the rules concerning the permissible content and distribution of the Congressional Record.

The Joint Committee on Taxation serves as a tax research panel supporting the work of the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee, the two committees with jurisdiction over tax legislation. The staff of the Joint Committee serve as in-house experts on the federal tax system and calculate the potential effects of proposed legislation to change the tax code. They also advise the Members of the two legislative committees on all matters relating to revenue policy, and play an important role in conference committees when complex tax proposals are at issue between the House and Senate.

The Joint Economic Committee provides expertise and research studies on economic questions. The Committee is charged with analyzing the overall performance of the U.S. economy. It makes recommendations to the full House and Senate, after reviewing the President's annual Economic Report to Congress, and the actions of the Federal Reserve Board. While the Committee holds hearings from time to time, it has no legislative responsibilities.