Sessions of Congress

Each Congress lasts two years, matching the terms of House members, and is numbered in sequence from the First Congress, which met on March 4, 1789. The 119th Congress began on January 3, 2025. Each Congress normally has two regular sessions, one per year. Until the Twentieth Amendment, ratified on January 23, 1933, a newly elected Congress usually did not meet until December of the following year, 13 months after the election, and the amendment moved the start of each new Congress to January 3.

Bills that have not passed both chambers by the end of a Congress die and must be reintroduced, while bills carry over from the first session to the second within the same Congress. The Constitution requires Congress to assemble at least once a year and forbids either chamber to adjourn for more than three days during a session without the consent of the other. Congress adjourns a session by concurrent resolution, and the President may convene either or both chambers on extraordinary occasions and may adjourn them if they disagree on a time of adjournment, a power never used.

Presidents have called Congress into special session 27 times, most recently in July 1948, when President Harry Truman summoned it back during the election campaign. Today Congress is in session most of the year, with scheduled recesses called district or state work periods, and it often holds brief pro forma sessions during breaks to avoid formally adjourning. Supporters of the current calendar say long sessions are needed for the modern workload, while critics say Congress spends too little time in Washington legislating and too much time campaigning and raising money.