lame duck session
Post-election congressional period
A lame duck session is the period when a legislative body meets after an election but before newly elected members take office.
The outgoing legislators—some of whom lost their seats or chose not to run—continue to vote on bills despite their imminent departure.
These sessions sometimes produce controversial legislation, since members no longer face electoral consequences: Congress passed the treaty during the lame duck session.
- Capitol HillCongressional district and synecdoche
- transitionChange from one state
- power vacuumAbsence of governing authority
- outgoingSociable and unreserved
- interregnumRulership gap period
recess · filibuster · legislation · midnight · last minute · waning · expiring · term limits · holdover · caretaker · interim · gridlock · executive orders · Capitol · November · December · president · election
- presidencyOval Office, president, Washington, executive branch, veto
- Congresssenator, representative, senators, House, bill
- legislaturebill, senators, senator, state legislature, legislators
- political jargonfilibuster, gerrymandering, caucus, pork barrel, swing state
- political ceremoniesinauguration, oath of office, swearing in, State of the Union, inaugural parade
lame duck sessionopening session
First formal gathering
first session · honeymoon period · first hundred days · fresh mandate
lame duck sessiontransition government
Temporary authority between regimes
lame, duck, session, lamely, lameness, lamer, lamest, ducks, ducked