Until H.J. Res. 41 was signed into law in 1941, the President set the date for the Thanksgiving holiday. In 1940, for a second year in a row, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday from the fourth to the third Thursday of the month to create a longer holiday shopping season as the country recovered from the Great Depression. Parts of the country celebrated the holiday on different days when 16 states refused to accept the proclamation and kept the holiday on the last Thursday. To avoid such a conflict in the future, the resolution fixed the date of the public holiday. The public law incorporates a Senate amendment that designates Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of the month, rather than the last Thursday, to account for a November with five Thursdays.
One of the responsibilities of the Clerk of the House is to certify the passage of all bills and resolutions. This copy of the resolution was attested to by South Trimble, a former Member of Congress and long-serving Clerk of the House.