There are how many sessions in a term of congress

Instead, when a chamber reconvenes after a recess, the same daily session resumes, and business continues from the point it had reached when the recess began.

A recess often occupies only a brief period during a day's session. A chamber, however, also may recess its daily session overnight or for a longer period.

In some respects, the effects of an overnight recess may resemble those of a daily adjournment. When the Senate reconvenes after an overnight recess, for example, it observes the same ceremonies that are customary when reconvening after an adjournment, such as the prayer and Pledge of Allegiance, 12 which is not done after a recess that takes place within a single calendar day. In the Senate, as well, it may in general appropriately be said that an overnight recess, like a daily adjournment, brings a calendar day of session to an end.

When the House has reconvened after a recess overnight or longer, on the other hand, it has often omitted the ceremonies customary at the beginning of the next day's session, but has instead taken up the activity of the previous day from the point at which it had been suspended. Formally, however, a recess, even one that lasts overnight, is unlike an adjournment, in that it does not procedurally terminate a legislative day.

Whenever a chamber reconvenes after a daily recess, even if the recess began on a preceding calendar day, the previously existing legislative day is considered as resuming, and business continues from the point at which it stood when the recess began. In the terms being used here, as a result, a single legislative day may include more than one calendar day of session.

In context of the daily sessions of Congress, accordingly, being in recess is in strict contrast with being in adjournment: the House or Senate may either be recessed or adjourned, but it cannot be in both states at the same time. In the same way, once a chamber has recessed, it can be said to be "in recess," but it cannot formally be described as "in adjournment.

The House and Senate differ, however, in their interpretation of the relation between a daily session and a recess thereof. The House considers its daily session to continue during a recess: the mace 13 remains in its place at the rostrum and certain forms of routine business may occur, such as the introduction of bills and the filing of reports by committees.

In the Senate, on the other hand, it might be considered proper to say that when the chamber is "in recess," it is "out of session. In both chambers, an order for a recess of the daily session will, in general, specify the time for reconvening; otherwise, it will most likely provide for reconvening "at the call of the chair. The Senate can bring about a daily recess by essentially the same means it may use for a daily adjournment.

Senate rules give high precedence to a motion to recess, second only to the motion to adjourn. In the House, by contrast, a motion simply to recess is not privileged. House Rules accord the Speaker also the general authority to declare a recess "for a short time" subject to the call of the chair if no business is pending.

Except under the rule providing for an emergency recess, or in accordance with a previous order of the House itself, the House cannot recess while sitting as the Committee of the Whole. The distinction between recesses and adjournments of the daily session underlies the concept of the "legislative day. In cases when the significant distinction is whether or not any daily session of a chamber occurred on a specific calendar day, it will be less ambiguous or misleading simply to speak of a calendar day of session of the chamber or, more informally, as suggested earlier, of a "day of session".

A calendar day of session , in this sense , and a legislative day will not necessarily begin and terminate at the same point in time. A legislative day ends only when the chamber adjourns, and a new legislative day begins whenever the chamber reconvenes after an adjournment. When a chamber reconvenes after recessing, by contrast, no new legislative day begins, because no adjournment has intervened. If the chamber has recessed overnight, clearly a new calendar day of session begins, but still there is no new legislative day.

As a result, a legislative day is not always the same as a "day of session," in either the House or Senate. By recessing overnight rather than adjourning, a chamber may continue a single legislative day into a second calendar day.

By repeating this proceeding, a chamber may continue the same legislative day for many days, even for several weeks or months. A chamber may make use of this proceeding in order to bring about desired procedural consequences. In the Senate, for example, rules prescribe that a "morning hour," during which several orders of routine "morning business" are supposed to take place, is to occur at the beginning of each new legislative day. For several decades late in the 20 th century, the Senate often remained in the same legislative day for extended periods by continuing to recess overnight and even over weekends rather than adjourning.

By this means it avoided the possibility that the requirement for a "morning hour" could be used for dilatory purposes. The House, for various purposes, has also occasionally made use of such a proceeding.

Nowadays, however, both chambers normally adjourn at the end of each daily session, which means that in practice, the calendar day and the legislative day usually coincide. Conversely, instead of taking a short recess within a calendar day, a chamber may adjourn briefly and reconvene later on the same day. For this purpose, before the chamber adjourns, it will agree to an order specifying the time for it to reconvene.

In this case, when the chamber reconvenes, a new legislative day begins, even though the calendar day remains the same, because an adjournment has intervened between the two periods of session. By this means, a chamber may convene for more than one legislative day on a single calendar day. Legislative Day. A period beginning with the convening of a chamber after an adjournment and ending with an adjournment.

Daily Adjournment Adjournment from Day to Day. The means through which a legislative day is terminated. If the chamber does not reconvene until the following calendar day, the adjournment also terminates a "day of session.

Daily Recess. The means through which a legislative day is suspended. When the chamber reconvenes, the same legislative day continues, even if the recess extended overnight, and thereby terminated the previous "day of session.

For instance, Senate Rules provide that when a measure is reported from committee, it must normally lie over for a period stated in legislative days before it can be taken up for consideration. Similarly, House Rules provide that a "special rule" a resolution reported by the Committee on Rules, establishing a special order of business may not be considered on the same day reported, except by a two-thirds' vote, and this requirement is interpreted in terms of the legislative day.

In recent times, each chamber has used such a proceeding only occasionally. In setting times for reconvening after a daily adjournment, both chambers are restricted by the Adjournments Clause of the Constitution, which requires that "Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days. When either chamber plans to adjourn or recess its daily session for three days or more , Congress has developed two means of satisfying this constitutional requirement.

One is for the two chambers to adopt an "adjournment resolution," which is a concurrent resolution in which each gives the other permission to suspend its daily sessions for the desired period. Concurrent resolutions are appropriate for this purpose, because the concurrent resolution is a form of measure that requires the approval of both chambers, but is not presented to the President for approval.

The other means by which a chamber can effectively suspend its daily sessions for three days or more is for it to establish a schedule under which it meets at least every third day. The "three days" of such a break must include either the last day the chamber meets before the break, or the first day after the break. These meetings, held for the purpose of avoiding the necessity of obtaining the consent of the other to an adjournment or recess of three days or more, are known as "pro forma sessions.

Essential points from the previous section may be summarized by saying that, in respect to its daily sessions, the House or Senate is in session whenever it is formally convened, but whenever it has adjourned , it is in adjournment , and is out of session , until it reconvenes. When a chamber has taken a recess , it is not in adjournment , but it is in recess and the House, at least, cannot then for all purposes be described as out of session.

These concepts apply to annual sessions in ways that are largely analogous, but the different context leads to some differences in application. Like a daily session, an annual session of either chamber begins when the session is formally convened and continues until it adjourns.

The adjournment of an annual session is an adjournment sine die. In contemporary practice, the period between the convening of an annual session and an adjournment sine die typically encompasses a substantial portion of the year. The Constitution regulates annual sessions by providing that "The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

A session of Congress, in this sense, involves annual sessions of both the House and the Senate that are concurrent or, in general, at least roughly concurrent.

Each Congress is elected for a two-year term of office, so that the term of office of each Congress comprises two regular annual sessions.

Each Congress is identified by its numerical sequence; for example, the Congress that first convened in January was the th Congress. Each annual session is identified by its sequence within its own Congress; for example, the session that convened in January was the second session of the th Congress.

For the first annual session of a new Congress, the Senate is normally convened by the Vice President or by its President pro tempore; 31 the House of Representatives is normally convened by the Clerk of the previous House. The House adopts its Rules and elects its officers; the Senate accomplishes any desired changes to its previous Rules and officers.

These organizing actions are valid for the entire Congress, so that, in any later annual session of the same Congress, each chamber is normally convened by its existing presiding officers, and may then proceed at once to business.

The President may call additional sessions of Congress, pursuant to his constitutional power "on extraordinary Occasions, [to] convene both Houses, or either of them. An extraordinary session stands on the same basis as the regular sessions in respect of its beginning, recess, and adjournment.

Accordingly, the basic observations offered in this report section may be extended to extraordinary sessions without material modification, and this report uses the term "annual session" as contrasted with the "daily session" to include extraordinary as well as regular sessions.

Under contemporary conditions, the exercise of this presidential power has seldom proved necessary, for each regular annual session normally continues to meet throughout most of the year. If, however, the President were to call an extraordinary session after the sine die adjournment of one regular annual session and before the convening of the next, the presidentially called session would be a separate session of Congress, additional to the regular annual sessions that convene pursuant to the Constitution, and would receive a separate number within the regular sequence.

For example, the second session of the 76 th Congress in was an extraordinary session, convened by the President after the sine die adjournment of the first session; as a result, the final regular session of the 76 th Congress, which convened in , became the third session of that Congress.

If, on the other hand, the President were to convene Congress at a time between the convening and sine die adjournment of a regular annual session, that same annual session would reconvene and continue to meet. For example, when President Truman called the 80 th Congress back in , the second session of that Congress had not adjourned sine die; as a result, the assembly of Congress pursuant to the President's call represented a continuation of that second session.

Just as a daily session continues until an adjournment from day to day, so an annual session of either chamber continues until an adjournment sine die or "sine die adjournment". In essence, an adjournment sine die simply means "an adjournment that ends an annual session. In the sense applicable to the annual sessions of Congress, once either chamber convenes its session, it remains "in session" until it adjourns sine die.

In the same sense, in the period between the sine die adjournment of one annual session and the convening of the next, the chamber can properly be said to be "in adjournment" and "out of session.

The requirement of the Adjournments Clause of the Constitution, that neither house adjourn for more than three days without the consent of the other, is understood to apply to adjournments sine die as well as to adjournments from day to day within a session. As a result, when Congress intends to adjourn its session sine die, it is the practice of the two chambers to adopt an adjournment resolution in the form of a concurrent resolution, by which each authorizes the other to adjourn sine die on a specified date or within a specified range of dates.

A concurrent resolution for this purpose is often called simply an "adjournment resolution. It is the practice of Congress to adopt a concurrent resolution providing for a sine die adjournment even when the time for the next session to convene is three days or less distant.

The only circumstance under which a sine die adjournment of either chamber normally may occur without authority of a concurrent resolution arises when a chamber continues its annual session until the very point at which the next session is to convene. In these circumstances which, under the modern congressional schedule, have been infrequent , the chair most often simply declares the sine die adjournment of the chamber when the time arrives.

The Senate has explicitly established that, except at the point when the following session is immediately going to convene, a daily adjournment never brings about a sine die adjournment de facto, even if it occurs within three days of the convening of the next session and the body has agreed not to meet again until that next session convenes.

In such a case, the Senate treats its previous session as remaining in being until the point at which the chair declares the new session to have convened.

As with the daily session, each chamber can also suspend its annual session for a period without adjourning it. A chamber may do so by adjourning or recessing its daily session to a time several days, or more, distant.

When it does so, the annual session is not adjourned sine die, but only temporarily interrupted. When the chamber convenes for its next daily session following a temporary break of this kind, the annual session of the chamber that was already in progress continues in being.

That is, the same numbered session of Congress for example, the first session of the th Congress resumes. Such a suspension of daily sessions in the course of the annual session is often referred to as a "recess," meaning, implicitly, a recess of the annual session. This usage generally parallels the use of "recess" in relation to the daily session, meaning, in both cases, a temporary break that does not terminate the session.

When referring to a break within the annual session, however, the term "recess" does not serve as a parliamentary term of art, but instead simply as a convenient, and widely understood, form of reference. In this respect, usage in relation to the annual session contrasts with that in relation to the daily session. The significance of a recess within an annual session of Congress depends on its length. As noted earlier, the Adjournments Clause of the Constitution prohibits either chamber from adjourning for more than three days without the consent of the other.

This requirement is understood to apply not only to sine die adjournments, but also to periods within the annual session when the daily sessions of a chamber are suspended. In this way, the Adjournments Clause gives a distinct status to "recesses" of three days or more within an annual session. In conformity with the language of the clause, such periods are formally referred to as "adjournments for more than three days" within the annual session.

As with sine die adjournments of a session, each chamber normally provides permission for the other to adjourn for three days or more by means of a concurrent resolution, adopted by both. Like the concurrent resolutions used for sine die adjournments, those used for adjournments for three days or more within the annual session may be referred to as "adjournment resolutions.

Like a motion authorizing a daily recess, a concurrent resolution for a "recess of the session" normally establishes the date for each chamber to reconvene. When a chamber reconvenes after a daily recess, moreover, the business of the daily session resumes from the point at which it left off; similarly, when a chamber reconvenes after a "recess of the session," the business of the annual session resumes from the point it had reached when the daily sessions were suspended.

If the term "recess of the session" is restricted to adjournments of three days or more within a session, a "recess of the session" will then routinely be identifiable by the presence of a concurrent resolution authorizing each house to take the recess. This restriction, however, leaves no distinctive term for periods when the daily sessions are adjourned for fewer than three days.

These briefer suspensions of daily sessions, too, may sometimes be spoken of as "recesses" in relation to the annual session. These breaks of fewer than three days between daily sessions occur routinely. For example, it is common practice in each chamber to adjourn a daily session on Friday and not to reconvene until the following Tuesday, or to adjourn on Thursday and not reconvene until Monday. The practical effects of such a break are no different from those of a daily adjournment from one day to the next, or an overnight recess of the daily session.

They have no significance in relation to the Adjournments Clause: not only do they not terminate the annual session, they do not even suspend it. A chamber may pursue such a schedule on its own authority, without the consent of the other, by any of the means specified in the section on daily adjournments. The preceding discussion shows that in many respects, the terms "recess" and "adjournment" are used, in relation to the annual session, in ways that parallel their use in relation to the daily session.

An adjournment sine die terminates an annual session, just as an adjournment from day to day terminates a legislative day. A "recess of the session" for more than three days, pursuant to a concurrent resolution does not terminate an annual session, but only puts it in a state of suspension, just as a recess of the daily session does not terminate the legislative day, but only puts it into a state of suspension. A "recess of the session" stands in strict contrast with a sine die adjournment, just as a chamber cannot simultaneously be in adjournment and in recess with respect to its daily session.

Finally, the annual session of a chamber remains continuous through both daily recesses and adjournments in a sense that corresponds to the continuity of the chamber's daily session when no daily recesses occur between convening and adjournment. Certain differences between the two contexts also exist, however. When the daily session of a chamber is interrupted by no daily recesses, the chamber is actually present and capable of business during every moment from convening to adjournment.

On the other hand, even if a chamber's annual session is interrupted by no recesses of the session, the chamber is not actually present and capable of doing business during every consecutive moment from its first convening until the sine die adjournment. Although the annual session remains continuous through daily recesses and adjournments, its actual capacity for business at any given moment, obviously, will be interrupted by these recesses and adjournments.

Finally, a chamber may initiate a "recess" of its annual session either with a recess or an adjournment of its daily session. The House normally recesses its annual session through an adjournment of its daily session.

The Senate, on the other hand, has sometimes begun a recess of its annual session by taking a recess of daily session that continued throughout the "recess of the annual session. Conversely, a chamber can adjourn its annual session sine die only by also adjourning its last daily session of that annual session.

A chamber cannot adjourn its annual session sine die while recessing its daily session. Annual Session. A period that begins when the chamber first formally convene s after a sine die adjournment and lasts until it next adjourns sine die. Recess of the Annual Session. The means through which an annual session is suspended for three calendar days or more in one or both chambers through a concurrent resolution.

Such annual recesses may be initiated by an adjournment or recess of the daily session. When the chamber reconvenes, the same annual session continues. Pro Forma Session. A daily session whose existence prevents the occurrence of a recess of the annual session or forestalls a sine die adjournment. In the primary sense of the term, a pro forma session is considered to include any daily session which is held chiefly to prevent the occurrence of a "recess of the session" that is, an adjournment for more than three days within an annual session or forestalls a sine die adjournment.

In this sense, a pro forma session is a kind of daily session that has a specific effect in relation to the status of the annual session. The term "pro forma session" has no application as a description of any form of annual session itself. Beyond this point, however, "pro forma session" like "recess" in relation to the annual session does not have a precise formal sense; it is not a parliamentary term of art, but one that has been used informally to describe sessions having various characteristics and performing various functions.

The term is commonly used, in particular, to connote a short daily session of either chamber in which little or no business is transacted, and often also for any session for which no session of that chamber occurs on either the preceding or following day. Each chamber often uses pro forma sessions as a means of extending a weekend break without having to provide for a "recess of the session.

Under these circumstances, the significant feature that distinguishes the Monday, rather than the preceding Thursday, as the pro forma session is that it is the Monday on which no, or little, business is scheduled. Both houses have also used pro forma sessions as a means of establishing a constituency work period without requiring a "recess of the session. In this way, none of the intervals between daily sessions need constitute an adjournment for three days or more, and no concurrent resolution would be necessary.

In this case the Monday and Thursday sessions would clearly be identifiable as the pro forma sessions in all senses of the term. By this understanding of "pro forma session," during the week of the constituency work period, the body would be "in pro forma session" only between the convening and adjournment of its daily session on the Monday, and then on the Thursday.

It could not be properly described as "in pro forma session" during the week as a whole. This period might appropriately be described as "a period of pro forma sessions," or as including "a series of pro forma sessions.

The considerations relative to recesses and adjournments of daily and annual sessions of Congress raised in the previous discussion have significant implications for several aspects of congressional practice, including. Two events in the s changed things, however: first, the perfection of the telegraph into a practical method of long-distance communication in no more would a Congressman take his seat for a "short" session in early December without knowing he was, indeed, a "lame duck"!

Elections are expensive: holding more than one every year even more so; little by little, States began changing the date on which they elected Congressmen to the same date as that of the Presidential Election even for Midterm Congressional Elections in those even-numbered years in which a President was not being elected - New Hampshire was the last State to elect its Congressmen in an odd-numbered year the Granite State's last such election being in for its members of the House in the 45th Congress [similarly, and for much the same reason the costs of holding an election , State election dates also would follow suit- though more slowly: Maine was the last State to elect State officers on a date other than the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November where such officers are elected in the same year as members of Congress; the Pine Tree State finally joined the "November General Election" crowd with the Election Louisiana still elects its State officials on a date other than the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November but for terms that start at the beginning of an even-numbered year- not an odd-numbered year, as is the case with Congress Transportation was also improving: the railroad was spreading everywhere though more efficiently and in more interlocking a manner in the North than in the South ; the combination of improved communication and better transportation was making the "short" session more and more anachronistic- those who decried it began to call it the "lame duck session": the problem was that this "lame duck" "short" session was written into a Constitution in which its drafters had failed to set specific terms of office by date to go along with the length of those terms; thus, the Constitution would have to be amended in order to set a new, more efficient schedule of "regular" sessions of Congress.

Other problems with the "short" session also surfaced: the "short" session became the repository of difficult- if not to say controversial- proposals passed over during the "long" session why? Above all, it was the "short" session of the outgoing Congress which counted and tabulated the Electoral Votes for President and Vice-President the Congress that came up with the ill-fated Electoral Commission to handle the disputed Election was one made up of more than a few "lame ducks" in either house The problem of being a "lame duck" in the "short" session became even more acute when Senators were elected by popular vote with the adoption of the 17th Amendment in ; now both houses of Congress had members serving within them after having been defeated for re-election by the People in the most recent election!

All in all, the "short"- "lame duck"- session of a Congress being held- in an age of automobiles, streamlined trains and the improving airplane- after the next Congress waiting to take office the following 4 March had already been chosen no longer made much sense. And so, the adoption of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution- effective with the second session of the 73rd Congress to begin- under the new timetable- on 3 January :.

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. Gone was the "regular" biennial rhythm of long and short , replaced now by the biennial rhythm of odd and even as in: the first "regular" session in an odd-numbered year, the second "regular" session in an even-numbered year.

This is the schedule of "regular" sessions of Congress that still prevails today. It is possible and, indeed, has happened more than a few times that the even session of a postth Amendment Congress could continue beyond the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November when the members of the next Congress have already been elected or, more to the point, after many persons sitting in said even session have already been voted out of office.

Those even sessions which contain such a "lame duck component" are indicated on the "Sessions of Congress" chart by an italicized ld [as in lame duck ]. I here use the term "lame duck component" because, even though it is common practice to refer to an outgoing Congress meeting after the latest Congressional Elections as being in "lame duck session", this period of meeting- rather than being a so-called "Extra" session- is really just the tail end of a session that convened long before the November elections.

An "Extra" session of Congress listed as such under the " type " heading on the "Sessions of Congress" chart is a session of Congress outside the two "regular" sessions required by the Constitution the long and short sessions mandated by Article I, Section 4; after , the odd and even sessions authorized by the 20th Amendment.

The most common reason for an "Extra" session has been the calling of Congress into such session through Proclamation by the President exercising his power- under Article II, section 3- to "on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses Prior to the adoption of the 20th Amendment, with all the time between 4 March of an odd-numbered year on which a Congress started and the following first Monday in December which was the latest date a "regular" long session could convene, there was ample opportunity for a President to call Congress into "Extra" session sometime during this period- it should not be surprising, therefore, that the "Extra" session was much more common before than it has been since.

Since the 20th Amendment has taken effect, an "Extra" session of Congress has only been called by presidential proclamation twice- each time after adjournment of a "regular" odd session but before the following year's even session had convened- each time by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt; the nearly year-long length of both "regular" sessions of Congress just before and during World War II did not afford FDR the opportunity to ever call another one.

No President since has called Congress into between-"regular" sessions "Extra" sessions; the nearly year-long length of the odd session in recent decades has probably made it unnecessary for a modern President to do so as noted above, if a "lame duck" post-election period of meeting at the end of a Congress is needed, it has been the practice that this is the result of Congress simply tacking on time to the "regular" even session.

In theory, Congress can call itself into "Extra" session but the postth Amendment Congress has always counted breaks in its legislative schedule as "recesses" within either the odd or even "regular" session. The 39th Congress, by law, called the 40th Congress into "Extra" session at the start of its term on 4 March in an attempt to prevent Andrew Johnson from calling a Special Session of the Senate see below [President Johnson did anyway, in between what today would be called "recesses" of the 40th Congress' "Extra" session].

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