<P> Procedures of the United States Congress are established ways of doing legislative business . Congress has two - year terms with one session each year . There are rules and procedures, often complex, which guide how it converts ideas for legislation into laws . </P> <P> A term of Congress is divided into two "sessions", one for each year; Congress has occasionally also been called into an extra, (or special) session (the Constitution requires Congress to meet at least once each year). A new session commences on January 3 (or another date, if Congress so chooses) each year . Before the Twentieth Amendment, Congress met from the first Monday in December to April or May in the first session of their term (the "long session"); and from December to March 4 in the second "short session". (The new Congress would then meet for some days, for the inauguration, swearing in new members, and organization .) </P>

How many sessions are there in a term of congress