I think the House and Senate can adjourn separately. Also, it’s only the Senate that needs to give “advice and consent” to appointments.
Duh. But the Senate has to be in session to give the advice and consent. Hence my question. They cannot adjourn separately, which is why the House was not adjourning when Obama tried to make recess appointments. They would come in every few days and pretend to have a session. It was written about extensively in connection with the NLRB appointments and the SC's slap down of Obama about them. HOWEVER, I have not seen whether they can go into session separately or it has to be together. I thought someone might know the answer before I look it up.