By the federal constitution it is provided that Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and, in the absence of statutory provision fixing a different time, the regular session shall commence on the first Monday in December (Art. I, § 4, ¶ 2). Each house determines the rules of its proceedings, and has authority to punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, by a two thirds vote, expel a member (Art. I, § 5, ¶ 2). It is also provided that each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings on which the yeas and nays on any question shall be entered at the desire of one-fifth of the members present (Art. I, § 5, ¶ 3).

Similar provisions are found in state constitutions; but it is not desirable to consider at length the methods of legislative procedure, nor the various questions of parliamentary law which may arise with reference thereto. These are matters to be determined by each legislative body for itself.

Each house of the legislature chooses its own officers, save that the vice-president of the United States is president of the senate (Art. I, § 3, ¶ 4), and the lieutenant-governor or other corresponding elective officer is president of the state senate.