pro forma session - A brief meeting (sometimes only several seconds) of the Senate in which no business is conducted. It is held usually to satisfy the constitutional obligation that neither chamber can adjourn for more than three days without the consent of the other.
Congressional Sessions lists all Congresses and corresponding years - from 1789, when the 1st Congress met, through the current Congress.
You can access legislative information, by bill number or key words, from the THOMAS Web site. Information from the present back to the 93rd Congress (1973) is available on THOMAS.
For information on the Senate, Congress, the legislative process and the federal government, the Virtual Reference Desk is a good place to begin.