Why didn’t the 119 Congress convene on March 4?

Why did it start on January 3?

Did you know that Congress’s first day on the job used to be March 4th, not January 3rd?

News:

The 119th Congress met today, Jan. 3, 2025, at noon Eastern Time.

History Behind News:

The 20th Amendment, which was ratified on January 23, 1933, changed the date that Congress meets from March 4 to January 3. This Amendment also changed the presidential inauguration day from March 4 to January 20.

I will give you the history behind our inauguration day later this month (on Jan. 20). With respect to Congress’s start date, I should emphasize at the get-go that changing this date was hugely important, for at least three reasons.

Joint Resolution by the 72nd Congress Proposing the 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Dated Mon., Dec. 7, 1931. Signed by John Garner (Speaker of the House) and Charles Curtis (U.S. Vice President ).

To begin with (reason #1), if the newly elected Congress convened on the same day as the president’s inauguration, which used to be the case up to 1933, then this meant that the electoral vote was counted by the outgoing Congress (which was done before March 4). This was an awkward situation, in which many U.S. Representatives and Senators that lost the last…