[Political Junkie Too]

I'm just going by the calendar they posted at the beginning of the session.

It's interesting that the 114th Congress adjourned an hour before the 115th Congress convened by scheduling a "special legislative session" for the first week of January 2016, while Obama was still President for two more weeks. Prior Congresses had at least a week between the close of one and the start of another.

-PJ

[Dave W]

That was to prevent Obama from making any recess appointments and the Senate this year will do the same. However, the week between the close of one and the start of another can be considered not recessed.

The republicans would do a pro forma session about every three days and as long as a week, which historically, the tradition dictated that the Senate was not in recess. Obama made recess appointments anyway between these pro forma Senate sessions. The republicans in Congress sued and won a SC case a few years ago that stated pro forma sessions are indeed official sessions and having a reasonable number of days between sessions does not constitute a recess.