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Legislative calendars

Session deadlines & who represents you

Looking for votes? The Legislation section has bills, roll calls and each legislator's record at the federal, state and county levels.

Knowing who represents your district and when key decisions are being made is essential to effective advocacy. Use the resources below to find your state and federal representatives, follow legislative calendars, and identify the right time to engage. All links lead to official government sources.

2026 session calendar

Key dates for the second year of the 2025–26 session. Source: the Senate's official Tentative Legislative Calendar.

• Statutes take effect

  Bills enacted on or before Oct 2, 2025 take effect today. Urgency statutes and bills with their own operative dates are the exceptions.

• In session

  Legislature reconvenes

  Second year of the two-year session begins.

• Budget

  Governor's budget proposal

  Constitutional deadline to submit the budget.

• Deadline

  Policy committees: 2-year fiscal bills

  Last day to report 2025 fiscal bills to fiscal committees. They go to Appropriations, not to the Floor.

• Deadline

  Committees: 2-year bills to the Floor

  Last day to report bills introduced in 2025.

• Deadline

  House passage of 2-year bills

  Each house must pass its own 2025 bills.

• Deadline

  Bill introduction deadline

  Last day for new bills to be introduced this session.

• Recess

  Spring recess begins

• In session

  Legislature reconvenes

  Back from spring recess.

• Deadline

  Policy committees: fiscal bills

  Last day to report fiscal bills to fiscal committees. Most education bills carry a cost, so they go to Appropriations here, not to the Floor.

• Deadline

  Policy committees: non-fiscal bills

  Last day to report non-fiscal bills to the Floor. These skip Appropriations.

• Deadline

  Fiscal committees to the Floor

  Last day to report bills from their house.

• Key deadline

  House passage deadline

  Last day for each house to pass its own bills. The biggest cutoff of the year.

• Budget

  Budget Bill must pass

  Constitutional midnight deadline.

• Key deadline

  Ballot measure qualification

  Last day for a legislative measure to qualify for the Nov 3 ballot. School bonds and education measures die here.

• Recess

  Policy committee deadline, then summer recess

  Last day for policy committees to meet and report bills. Recess begins on adjournment, but only if the Budget Bill has passed.

• In session

  Legislature reconvenes

  Back from summer recess.

• Deadline

  Fiscal committees: final reports

  Last day to report bills to the Floor.

• Deadline

  Last day to amend on the Floor

• Key deadline

  Final passage deadline

  Last day for each house to pass bills; final recess begins.

• Key deadline

  Governor's action deadline

  Last day to sign or veto bills passed before Sept 1 that reached the Governor on or after Sept 1. Bills delivered earlier run on the 12-day rule instead.

• Deadline

  Effective-date cutoff

  Bills enacted on or before today take effect Jan 1, 2027. Later ones wait.

• Election

  General Election

• Key deadline

  Adjournment sine die

  The 2025–26 session ends at midnight.

Congress · where the two chambers differ

The House and Senate set their calendars separately, and in 2026 they diverge more than they line up. Below is what is still ahead this year.

• Back from summer

  Aug 10 – Sep 14
  House

  Away most of August; returns Aug 31 for one week, then out again.

  Senate

  Out the whole stretch; returns Sep 14.

  Early September is a very short window if you need both chambers in the room.

• Pre-election break

  Oct 1 – Nov 9
  House

  Last votes Oct 1, then more than five weeks out.

  Senate

  Out Oct 5 – Nov 6.

  Both chambers clear the calendar to campaign. Election Day is Nov 3. Both return Mon Nov 9, which puts the Senate back six days after the election, not the day after.

• Veterans Day week

  Nov 9 – Nov 13
  House unconfirmed

  Reported in session the week of Nov 9, Veterans Day included.

  Senate

  Out Nov 11–13.

  The Senate takes the holiday. The House side is from reporting on the calendar, not an official list.

• Thanksgiving

  Nov 23 – 27
  House

  Out.

  Senate

  Out.

  No difference. Both chambers are away.

• Year end

  Dec 21 – 31
  House

  No published target adjournment date.

  Senate

  Out Dec 21–31; no published target adjournment date either.

  Neither chamber has published a sine die target for 2026. Year-end dates historically slip.

Earlier this year

• Jan 30The stopgap funding deadline was missed. Funding lapsed for four days, Jan 31 – Feb 3. A second, DHS-only lapse began Feb 14 and ran to Apr 30.
• Mar 30 – Apr 10Both chambers were out; both adjourned to Apr 13.
• Jun 29 – Jul 10The Senate was out both weeks. The House was in session Jun 29, working the run-up to July 4.

Weeks both chambers are away

• Feb 16 – 20Presidents' Day week
• May 25 – 29Memorial Day week
• Nov 23 – 27Thanksgiving week

Senate, in full. The Senate publishes the weeks it will not sit: Jan 1–2, Jan 19–23, Feb 16–20, Mar 30 – Apr 10, May 4–8, May 25–29, Jun 19, Jun 29 – Jul 10, Aug 10 – Sep 11, Oct 5 – Nov 6, Nov 11–13, Nov 23–27, Dec 21–31. Everything else is a session week. It still holds brief pro forma sessions inside those periods, and it has not published a target adjournment date for 2026.
On the House column. The House publishes day-level detail only as a colour-coded PDF, and reissued that calendar in March 2026, so House entries here follow reporting on it rather than an official machine-readable list, and anything I could not confirm is marked. Both official calendars are linked under Federal · calendars above; check them before you book travel.