11 Facts About Lame-duck session

The expression is used not only for a special session called after a sine die adjournment, but for any portion of a regular session that falls after an election.

The significant characteristic of a lame duck Lame-duck session is that its participants are the sitting Members of the existing Congress, not those who will be entitled to sit in the new Congress.

Congress today could achieve an equivalent result by adjourning its Lame-duck session sine die before an election, after first providing by law for an additional Lame-duck session of the old Congress to convene on a date after the election.

The Speaker of the House used authority of this kind in 1998 to reconvene the chamber in a post-election continuation of a Lame-duck session that had previously been terminated by a conditional sine die adjournment.

Fourth way in which a lame-duck session can occur arises if Congress chooses not to authorize a recess spanning an election.

Extraordinary Lame-duck session called by President Truman did not constitute a lame duck Lame-duck session, because it both convened and recessed before the election.

Since 1970, when Congress has recessed before a lame duck Lame-duck session, the beginning of the recess has most often occurred in early to mid-October.

The earliest end of a lame duck Lame-duck session occurred in 2002, when the House adjourned sine die on November 22, the Senate having done so two days earlier.

The shortest lame duck Lame-duck session occurred in the 80th Congress, when both houses returned solely to close the Lame-duck session on December 31,1948.

Lame duck Lame-duck session was considered necessary in 2004 because many appropriation bills had not yet even received Senate action and Congress had not cleared an increase in the debt limit.

Main legislative business of the lame duck Lame-duck session involved further responses to spreadingdisruptions of the financial system that had become evident during the campaign period.