Sandbox:Senate of the Empire

"" The Senate of the Empire is the lower house of the Parliament of the Empire, which, along with the High Council of the Empire —the upper house— constitutes the legislature of the Empire. The Senate meets in the Palace of the Senate located at the north of the historic center of Magium, Magonia.

The Senate is an elected body consisting of 828 members known as senators. They are elected to represent their province-level entities by the single transferable vote system and hold their seats during a period between 5 and 8 years.

Current composition by province-level entity
Note: This distribution by province is provisional and can be changed at any time. The total number of 828 senators is the standard for now (in the same way, it can be changed at any time if necessary).

Committees
 The Senate uses committees (and their subcommittees) for a variety of purposes, including the review of bills and the overseight of the executive branch. According to the Senate of the Empire Code, the Multi-partisan Conference of the Senate of the Empire (formed by the leaders and executive members of all the political parties in the Senate) is responsible for assigning each senator a committee. Each senator is assigned to 1 committee (and to some subcommittee) based on their abilities and pre-Senate career. A similar system is used to elect the chair and the ranking member, in which the senator with the most experience is elected to occupy the position.

The comittee work is performed by 15 standing committees, each of which has jurisdiction over the most important issues in the Empire and the Senate. Each standing committee may consider, amend, and report bills that fall under its jurisdiction. Although the committees and the Senate in general do not consider nor approve the nominations to Epistalma (since the term of each secretary is very short for a confirmation process), it does constantly oversee of the activity of these secretaries and their ministries.

Each committee and subcommittees should consider (and amend if necessary) bills that come into their jurisdiction, as well as consider the opinion of the High Council of the Empire on the matter. Once the consideration process is done and all objections are solved, the committee authorizes moving the bill to the Senate floor for final approval. The committees can propose measures to each executive ministry to solve a problem that is within their jurisdiction. The Ethics Committee is responsible for compliance with the Senate of the Empire Code and for measures against unethical actions by senators and legislative officials.

12 of the 15 Senate committees are responsible for supervising the action of Epistalma and the government in general on different issues at the national level, 2 are focused on parliamentary issues (Rules and Administration, and Ethics Committees), while the Budget Committee is responsible for drafting Senate's annual budget plan and monitoring action on the budget of the government (this committee is considered ambiguous in this context). There are currently 7 joint committees, that include members of both the Senate and the High Council of the Empire: the Magical, Provincial, Theurgial and Religious, Legislative, Electivate, Joint Sessions and Taxation committees.