Annual Sessions

The principle for this Constitution Monday comes from Article I.4.2, "The Congress, consisting of both the House and the Senate, shall meet automatically once every year, on the first Monday in December unless they shall by law appoint a different day." This principle gives the people the Right to expect their representatives in Congress to automatically meet each year on a specific date. (Section 2 of the Twentieth Amendment, passed in 1933, changed the date to January 3.)

The writers of the U.S. Constitution were well aware that the king in England convened and dissolved Parliament whenever he chose to do so, and they wanted to avoid the conflicts caused by such behavior. The Founders wanted the annual sessions of Congress to occur automatically each year, and they wrote specific instructions to do so.

An interesting side note: At the time George Washington became President of the United States, the States General of France had not been called together by the king for 175 years. King Louis convened the French States General one month after Washington was inaugurated - and the French Revolution was the result of their meeting.