(A) The first regular session of each general assembly shall convene on the first Monday of January in the odd-numbered year, or on the succeeding day if the first Monday of January is a legal holiday, and in second regular session on the same date of the following year. The second regular session of each general assembly shall be in a continuum of the first regular session. At the second regular session, the general assembly shall consider matters held over from the first regular session, revenue and appropriation bills, and other measures agreed to by a majority of the members elected to either house or recommended by the governor in a public proclamation or a message to the general assembly.

(B) At one-thirty p.m. of the day specified for the beginning of the first regular session of the general assembly, the president of the senate during the preceding biennium or in the case of his absence or inability to act, the president pro tempore of the senate during the preceding biennium shall take the chair and call the senate to order. He shall also call the senatorial districts in their numerical order, and as they are called the persons claiming to be senators-elect therefrom shall present their certificates and take the oath of office.

If neither the president nor the president pro tempore designated in this division is available to preside at the beginning of the first regular session, the senators and senators-elect shall designate by party caucus the person who shall preside over the organization of the senate.

Effective Date: 01-08-1979.