To ensure that Johnson would not have a free hand over Reconstruction, as he had had in 1865, the 39th United States Congress passed a law that called the 40th Congress into session in March 1867 rather than its December 1867, when it would usually have convened. One of the first actions taken by the 40th Congress was to pass the Second Reconstruction Act, doing so over Johnson's veto. The act provided for the registration of only those voters that could show their loyalty to the Union, as well as the calling of state conventions to create new governments.