Sessions

Sessions are meetings of either body of congress. Sessions run eleven months out of the year. They start in January and end in November, leaving December as the one month without sessions of congress. During those eleven months, there will be at least one joint session of congress. A joint session is when both the Senate and the House meet together. This will usually be due to the president speaking or something of that nature.

Caucuses

Caucuses occur in the beginning of the year. These are the private meetings of the political parties when each party chooses their leaders.

Political Parties

There are two major political parties, Democratic and Republican. The party with more representatives is the majority party, while the one with fewer representatives is the minority party.