get_senate_sessions: Start and end dates of Senate sessions

In filibustr: Data Utilities for Congressional Research

Start and end dates of Senate sessions

Description

get_senate_sessions() returns a tibble with the beginning (convening) and ending (adjournment) dates of each legislative session of the Senate.

Usage

get_senate_sessions()

Details

The data is sourced from the official Senate website, specifically https://www.senate.gov/legislative/DatesofSessionsofCongress.htm.

Senate sessions explained

That webpage provides this explanation of Senate sessions:

Prior to the 74th Congress (1935-1937), the first session of a Congress officially began on March 4 of odd-numbered years and ended at midnight on March 3 of odd-numbered years. Since 1935, in accordance with the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, Congresses have begun and ended at noon on January 3 of odd-numbered years. Each two-year Congress typically includes two legislative sessions, although third or special sessions were common in earlier years.

The session column

The session column is type factor, with the following levels:

levels(get_senate_sessions()$session)
#> [1] "1" "2" "3" "4" "S"
# Note: That's a letter S, not a number 5!

The Senate has had just 2 sessions in each Congress since 1941, so if you are just working with more recent data, you could convert this column to numeric. However, if you are working with pre-1941 data, you will likely be dealing with special sessions (denoted "S"), not just numbered sessions.

Value

A tibble with the begin_date and adjourn_date of each session of the Senate.

Examples

get_senate_sessions()

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