Eff-you-see-kay

From Roach Busters

Congress of the Union Congreso de la Unión
File:Coat of arms of Murcielago.PNG
Type
Type	Bicameral
Houses	Senate (Senado) Chamber of Deputies (Cámara de Diputados)
Leadership
President of the Senate	Roger Montalván Guerrero
President of the Chamber of Deputies	Gonzalo Ramírez Ruz
Structure
Members	348 53 senators 295 deputies
Meeting place
File:National Palace of Murcielago.jpg National Palace (Palacio Nacional), Montelimar

The Congress of the United States of Murcielago (Spanish: Congreso de los Estados Unidos de Murciélago), also known as the Congress of the Union (Congreso de la Unión), or simply as Congress (Congreso), is the bicameral federal legislature of the United States of Murcielago, consisting of the Senate (Senado) and the Chamber of Deputies (Cámara de Diputados), which function as the upper house and lower house, respectively. Both houses meet in the National Palace (Palacio Nacional) in Montelimar, the capital.

[edit] Provisions common to both houses

Each house has the right, without intervention by the other:

1. To dictate economic resolutions relating to its internal organization.
2. To communicate with the co-legislative chamber and with the Executive of the Union, through committees of its own body.
3. To appoint the employees of its secretariat and prescribe the internal regulations thereof.
4. To issue a call for extraordinary elections for the purpose of filling vacancies of its respective members.
5. To set up committees and commissions and to hold parliamentary hearings on issues in its authority.
6. To adopt and regulate its rules of procedure.
7. To enforce attendance by its members.
8. To reprimand or remove any of its members because of misconduct in the performance of duty, incapacity, or physical or mental incapacitation.
9. To act on the resignation submitted by any member.

[edit] Powers

Congress has the following powers:

1. To admit new States and Territories into the Federal Union.
2. To form new States within the boundaries of existing ones, for which purpose it shall be necessary:
   1. That the section or sections seeking to be made a State shall have a population of at least one hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants.
   2. That it be proven before Congress that they possess the resources necessary to provide for their political existence.
   3. That the legislatures of the States involved be heard as to the feasibility or infeasibility of the formation of the new State, and they shall be required to render their report within six months from the date that the respective communication was submitted to them.
   4. That the President of the Republic likewise be heard, who shall transmit his report within seven days from the date on which it was requested of him.
   5. That the creation of the new State be adopted by a vote of two-thirds of the deputies and senators present in their respective chambers.
   6. That the resolution of the Congress be ratified by a majority of the legislatures of the States, with a copy of the record before them, provided that the legislatures of the States whose territory is involved have given their consent.
   7. If the legislatures of the States whose territory is involved have not given their consent, the ratification mentioned in the foregoing section must be given by two-thirds of the legislatures of the other States.
3. To arrange permanently the boundaries of the States, settling any differences that may arise between them in regard to the demarcation of their respective territories, except when these differences may be of a contentious character.
4. To prevent the establishment of restrictions on commerce from State to State.
5. To change the seat of the supreme powers of the Federation.
6. To legislate on all matters concerning the Federal District.
7. To approve or disapprove annually the statement of disbursement of funds intended for the expenses of the public administration, which the executive power must present.
8. To levy the necessary taxes to meet budgetary expenditures, provide for their distribution, collection and appropriation, and to repeal, modify, or increase those in existence.
9. To authorize the executive power to negotiate loans pledging the national treasury and indicating funds for their amortization.
10. To recognize the national debt and indicate the means for its consolidation and amortization.
11. To establish mints, to prescribe the weight, fineness, value, type, and denomination of the coinage, to determine the value of foreign currencies, and to adopt a general system of weights and measures.
12. To enact and order the publication of the Civil, Commercial, Criminal, Labor, and Social Security Codes, in unified or separate bodies, provided that such codes do not alter local jurisdictions, and their enforcement shall correspond to the federal or State courts depending on the respective jurisdictions for persons or things.
13. To create or abolish public offices of the Federation, to determine or to modify their attributes, to increase or diminish their salaries, to grant pensions and to decree public honors to those rendering distinguished services. Laws granting pensions must be passed by a vote of two-thirds of the members present in each chamber.
14. To declare war, in the light of information submitted by the Executive.
15. To enact laws pursuant to which captures on sea and land must be declared good or bad; and to enact maritime laws applicable in peace and war.
16. To raise and maintain the armed forces of the Union, to wit: Army, Navy and Air Force, and to regulate their organization and service.
17. To prescribe regulations for the purpose of organizing, arming, and disciplining the National Guard, reserving to the citizens who compose it the appointment of their respective commanders and officers, and to the States the power of training them in accordance with the discipline prescribed by such regulations.
18. To enact laws in regard to nationality, the legal status of foreigners, citizenship, naturalization, colonization, emigration and immigration, and the general health of the country.
19. To enact laws concerning general means of communication, and in regard to posts and post offices.
20. To enact the electoral law.
21. To establish rules for the occupation and alienation of vacant lands and fix their price.
22. To enact laws for the organization of the Murcielagense Diplomatic Corps and Consular Corps.
23. To define crimes and offenses against the Federation and to prescribe the punishments to be imposed for them.
24. To grant amnesties for crimes within the jurisdiction of the federal courts.
25. To authorize the establishment of banks of issue.
26. To enact the organic law governing the Office of the Comptroller-General.
27. To establish, organize, and maintain throughout the Republic rural, elementary, superior, secondary, and professional schools, and schools for scientific research, of fine arts, and of technical training; practical schools of agriculture and mining, of arts and crafts, museums, libraries, observatories, and other institutions concerning the general culture of the inhabitants of the Nation, and to legislate on all matters relating to such institutions; and to legislate on matters concerning archeological, artistic, and historic monuments, the conservation of which is of national interest.
28. To regulate trade with foreign nations.
29. To recognize the ethnic and cultural pre-existence of indigenous peoples of Murcielago. To guarantee respect for the identity and the right to bilingual and intercultural education; to recognize the legal capacity of their communities, and the community possession and ownership of the lands they traditionally occupy; and to regulate the granting of other lands adequate and sufficient for human development; none of them shall be sold, transmitted or subject to liens or attachments. To guarantee their participation in issues related to their natural resources and in other interests affecting them. The States may jointly exercise these powers.
30. To establish courts inferior to the Supreme Court of Justice and regulate the administration of justice and of contentious-administrative matters.
31. To legislate on the operation and administration of mines and hydrocarbons, salt beds, public lands, and oyster and pearl beds; and the conservation, development, and utilization of forests, waters and other natural resources of the country. The President of the Republic may, in conformity with the law, sell, lease or make free grants of public lands; but salt beds may not be alienated, and mining concessions may not be granted for an indefinite period. The law shall establish a system of special appropriations in behalf of States within whose territory property mentioned herein is located, without prejudice to establishing other special appropriations in behalf of other States. In all cases these appropriations shall be subject to the coordination standards provided in the Constitution. Public lands existing on marine, river, or lake islands may not be alienated, and concessions for their use may be granted only in a way not involving a transfer of the ownership of the land, directly or indirectly.
32. To grant awards and extend temporary privileges permitted by the Constitution to authors and inventors of works of general utility and to persons who have introduced new industries or improved existing ones.
33. To open and close ports and establish maritime and inland customhouses or to enact the rules by which the Executive may do so.
34. To regulate industrial property, patents and trademarks, and other forms of intellectual property.
35. To enact all laws that may be necessary to enforce the foregoing powers, and all others granted by this Constitution to the branches of the Union.