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Senate releases 2022 calendar

No leisurely post-holiday glow for senators, as chamber returns on Jan. 3

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., right, speaks to reporters in the Ohio Clock Corridor in the Capitol in July, alongside Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., right, speaks to reporters in the Ohio Clock Corridor in the Capitol in July, alongside Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Lawmakers in Congress will likely cross paths often next year, but several times members of the greatest deliberative body will be in Washington while their House counterparts are out of town. 

The Senate’s newly released calendar envisions the chamber being in session for 171 days in 2022, 146 before Election Day, including parts of 36 different weeks. 

The calendar, unveiled Tuesday, shows that senators are scheduled to return to Washington during the first week of January, a week earlier than the House. The date fueled speculation that Democrats’ $2.2 trillion reconciliation package wouldn’t get a vote by the Christmas deadline set by Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, though Democrats quickly moved to tamp that down. 

The calendar calls for weeklong breaks in January and February for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents’ Day holidays, and a two-week break over Easter and Passover. 

Some of that overlaps with the House schedule that was released in late November, but while the House is scheduled to be out of session for the entire months of August and October, the Senate is set for smaller breaks.

The week of Memorial Day at the end of May and the newly created federal Juneteenth holiday on June 20 will be the other breaks before the summer recess, which is set for Aug. 8 until Sept. 6. Every House seat is on the ballot on Nov. 8, but only 34 of the Senate’s 100 seats are up this year.

After a full month of work in September, taking only Rosh Hashana off on Sept. 26, the chamber is set to take off two weeks in both October and November.

The schedule builds in more than two straight weeks off in the run-up to Election Day, as senators facing competitive races look to ramp up their campaigns. 

The calendar calls for the chamber’s adjournment on Dec. 21. 

Here is the complete 2022 congressional calendar (download a printable PDF here):

 

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