65th United States Congress

The 65th United States Congress met in three sessions:

• 65th Congress, 1st Session: 1917–04–02 – 1917–10–06
• 65th Congress, 2nd Session: 1917–12–03 – 1918–11–21
• 65th Congress, 3rd Session: 1918–12–02 – 1919–03–03

The Senate of the 65th Congress was also called to a brief special session by President Wilson in May 1919, because of a filibuster that had successfully blocked appropriations bills needed to fund day-to-day government operations. The official Senate website provides the full story of this filibuster as part of a biography of Charles P. Higgins [1], the colorful Senate Seargant at Arms who was the only Democrat to fill that office in a space of almost forty years.

Bills passed by the 65th Congress and mentioned frequently on Google include the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, an agreement between the US and Great Britain designed to protect endangered fowl; the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act, which reduced the scope of American civil liberties by making certain kinds of criticism of the US government a treasonable offense; and the War Resolution, which brought America into World War I.