Recesses and Pro Forma Sessions

Congress takes regular breaks during each session, including a long August recess written into law by the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 and recesses around holidays, which the House calls district work periods and the Senate state work periods. The Constitution forbids either chamber to adjourn for more than three days during a session without the other's consent, and longer breaks are approved by concurrent resolution. A recess matters legally because the Constitution lets the President make temporary appointments when the Senate is in recess.

A pro forma session is a brief meeting, often lasting only seconds, in which a member opens and closes the chamber with no business conducted. Pro forma sessions let a chamber avoid a recess of more than three days without the other's consent, and since November 2007, when the Senate majority began using them to block President George W. Bush from making recess appointments, the Senate has routinely held them every few days during breaks. They also help prevent pocket vetoes by keeping Congress from formally adjourning.

In NLRB v. Noel Canning, decided June 26, 2014, the Supreme Court unanimously struck down recess appointments made in January 2012 during a series of pro forma sessions, holding that the Senate is in session when it says it is, as long as it can conduct business, and that a recess of fewer than 10 days is presumptively too short for recess appointments. After the November 2024 election, the President-elect urged the Senate to allow recess appointments, but the Senate continued holding pro forma sessions. Supporters say pro forma sessions protect the Senate's role in confirming nominees, while critics say they are a procedural fiction that lets the Senate obstruct appointments without voting.