United States Senate

====Term====
Senators serve terms of six years each; the terms are staggered so that approximately one-third of the seats are up for election every two years. This was achieved by dividing the senators of the [[1st United States Congress|1st Congress]] into thirds (called [[Classes of United States senators|classes]]), where the terms of one-third expired after two years, the terms of another third expired after four, and the terms of the last third expired after six years. This arrangement was also followed after the admission of new states into the union. The staggering of terms has been arranged such that both seats from a given state are not contested in the same general election, except when a vacancy is being filled. [[Class I Senator|Class I]] comprises Senators whose six-year terms are set to expire on January 3, 2025. There is no constitutional [[Term limits in the United States|limit to the number of terms]] a senator may serve.

The Constitution set the date for Congress to convene — Article 1, Section 4, Clause 2, originally set that date for the third day of December. The [[Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Twentieth Amendment]], however, changed the opening date for sessions to noon on the third day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. The Twentieth Amendment also states that the Congress shall assemble at least once every year, and allows the Congress to determine its convening and adjournment dates and other dates and schedules as it desires. Article 1, Section 3, provides that the president has the power to convene Congress on extraordinary occasions at his discretion.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.senate.gov/reference/Sessions/sessionDates.htm|title=Dates of Sessions of the Congress|work=United States Senate|access-date=June 17, 2020|archive-date=December 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201208023235/https://www.senate.gov/reference/Sessions/sessionDates.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

A member who has been elected, but not yet seated, is called a ''senator-elect''; a member who has been appointed to a seat, but not yet seated, is called a ''senator-designate''.