The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bipartisan resolution Thursday making clear that Sen. John McCain is a “natural-born” U.S. citizen under the Constitution.

The resolution aims to put to rest any speculation that McCain, an Arizona Republican and his party’s presumptive presidential nominee, is not qualified to be president because he was born outside the United States. It was approved 18-0.

McCain’s two Democratic rivals, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, are cosponsors of the resolution.

McCain was born Aug. 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone, where his father was serving as a Navy officer. The territory, now part of Panama, was under U.S. control at the time.

The Constitution requires presidents to be “natural born citizens” but does not specify what that means.

The resolution’s sponsor, Claire McCaskill , D-Mo., has also introduced a bill defining the term to include “any person born to any citizen of the United States while serving in the active or reserve components of the U.S. armed forces.”

She said she drafted that bill after the New York Times questioned whether McCain meets the citizenship qualification to be president.

“Clearly, that is a notion that defies common sense and certainly offends all of our patriotism,” said McCaskill, an ardent supporter of Obama’s presidential bid. “I can envision someone actually being misguided and trying to bring some kind of legal action to determine whether Sen. McCain should run for president.”