The Green Papers
The Green Papers
73rd Session of the Congress, 1933-1935
session type convened adjourned President pro Tempore
of the Senate
Speaker of the House
of Representatives
Special SENATE 4 March 1933 6 March 1933 none - - - -
1st Extra/odd 9 March 1933 15 June 1933 Pittman, Key
(Dem.- Nevada)
Rainey, Henry T.
(Dem.- Illinois)

The 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution- changing the commencement of the terms of the President, Vice President from 4 March to 20 January and the commencement of terms of Members of Congress (both Senators and Congressmen) from 4 March to 3 January as well as the date for convening regular sessions of Congress from the first Monday in December to 3 January- was declared ratified on 6 February 1933, before the 73rd Congress had even taken office the following 4 March and it was, thus, already known- when that Congress began- that the new date of 3 January for convening sessions of Congress and the start of terms of its Members would be the date of convening the 2nd session of the 73rd Congress.

Accordingly, newly inaugurated President Franklin Delano Roosevelt invoked his authority to call Congress into "extra" session (under the pre-20th Amendment schedule, the 1st regular "long" session of the 73rd Congress would not otherwise have begun until 4 December 1933)- this 1st session becoming known as the famous "Hundred Days" of the early New Deal era- but it was, from its beginning, treated as being, in fact, the newly-established "odd" session under the soon-to-be-effective 20th Amendment (hence its being listed herein as both an "extra" session and a regular "odd" session).

2nd even 3 January 1934 18 June 1934 Pittman Rainey

The "Hundred Days" 1st session of the 73rd Congress having fulfilled the constitutional requirement in the newly adopted 20th Amendment that "The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year", this 2nd session of that Congress was simply the newly-established "even" session under the 20th Amendment and is, thus, listed in this chart as such.

Modified .


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