Batavian Senate

The Senate, also reffered to as First Chamber or Reflection Chamber is the Upper House of the bicameral Batavian Consulate. The Senate is located in the left-wing of the Imperial Palace in Amsterdam.

Formation
To ensure every department would have it's own, equal voice in the Consulate. Emperor Saviël-Citus I decided to make the upper house of the Consulate a representation of all the departments, by letting the people of the department choose one Senator to represent them on the national stage. The elections were held in three cycles.

Functions
Despite being a legislative body of the Consulate, the Senate also has other functions.

Legislation
After main bills are discussed in the House of Consuls and accepted by a simple majority, the Senate debates them to make sure no law is made 'caught up in the moment'. The Senate however accepts about ⅔ of all the proposals without debate. Some bills are however debated, especially when it concerns a specific department. The Senate can only completely pass the proposals, or reject them. They do not have any right to change it. Amendments proposed by the House of Consuls do also need a ⅔ majority in the Senate, however, the Senate can also propose an amendment themselves, this amendment needs a ⅔ majority in the Senate, but does not need approval of the House.

Committee Hearing
The Senate can also call for a Committee Hearing by a simple simple majority. These Committee Hearings are different from the Hearing Sessions in the House. The Senate only calls for these hearings if their is a judical problem, like an violation of ethics or corruption, concerning an elected or appointed official on the nation level of politics; this includes Consuls, civil servants, clarks and several others. Members of the Cabinet are however not subject to these hearings, but rather answer politically to the House of Consuls and the Emperor. A call for a committee hearing has to be initiated by the Speaker Pro Tempore, usually on judicial advice, but the Speaker can be motioned to do so by the Senate or call to initiate by him or herself. Either way, by simple majority the Senate can proceed. The clark will randomly pick seven Senators that will conduct the hearings. If a majority of this temporary judicial committee delivers guilty verdict, the elected or appointed official will be immediately relieved from his position. In some cases. (e.g. Members of the JEC) this relieve is temporarily and requires a judgment from the courts to sustain, whilst in other cases (e.g. Consuls, Senators) the relieve is final and is even sustained if the courts rule against the allegations. Relieve verdicts are always referred to court.

Check the government
Just like the House of Consuls, any minister or cabinet member is responsible to the Senate. Ministers or at least State-Secretaries are regularly present in debates to explain theirselves or defend proposed legislation. In some cases, the Emperor takes over from Cabinet members and answers on their behalf, although this practice is becoming increasingly uncommon, as deemed innapropriate in conjuction with the Emperor's presiding duties.

Senate elections
Senate elections are held every two years, however the elections are not at the same time. The first 38 department senators are elected first. Eight months later the next 38 departments and another eight months and the last 38 departments. The first out of three Senators from Amsterdam is elected in the first cycle, the other two in the second. This is to maintain a fresh circle of Senators.

Senators are elected with a first-past-the-post majority vote and elected at large. Each department has it's 'own' election in which different candidates run. All candidates have to be independent, to truly represent their department first and not any ideology. The candidate which gains the highest margin of votes wins the election and can become Senator. The incumbent Senator can seek re-election as many times as he wants.

Acting Senators
If a Senator resigns before the end of the Senate's mandate, the Imperial-Governor of the resigned Senator's department will propose a replacement to the department's State Assembly. The State Assembly can then elect an acting Senator to serve for the originally elected Senator by simple majority. Although Imperial-Governors are legally required to nominate an acting Senator within one month after resignation, the Governor is not required to nominate a different person if the State Assembly refuses to elect the nominated Senator. The only way the State Assembly can seize control over this process is to pass an extraordinary appointment bill, that forces the Imperial-Governor to nominate a Senator in sign with the passed bill. In most departments however, the required ⅔ majority for such an extraordinary bill is unreachable. This means seats can be vacant if no consensus is reached between the two branches and/or parties.

Emperor
The Emperor has a seat in the Senate. He is regulary present on the floor as representative of the government. He awnsers questions of Senators on behalf of the government and debates with other Senators. The Emperor only participates in voting sessions if he chooses to veto the bill with a simple no-vote. When the Senate finds itself tied, the Emperor can cast the decisive vote. The Speaker Pro Tempore can in no circumstance vote on behalf of the Emperor.

Adjournment, prorogation and dissolution
The session-procedure differs from that in the House of Consuls. Sessions can be adjourned, prorogued or dissolved.

Adjournment
After each sitting day, the Speaker Pro Tempore calls upon the First or Second Deputy Speaker who moves to adjourn the debates until a time proposed to him in advance. All Senators will have been given access to the proposed adjournment before the motion. A procedural debate can hereafter be held concerning the adjournment by the use of points of order, however this only happens in rare occasions. Both ways, the Senate will vote on the adjournment. If the motion fails, the debate will not be closed, often in filibuster circumstances. In case of an affirmative vote, the Speaker Pro Tempore officially adjourns the Senate until the set time. Most of the time, the adjournment is solely until the next sitting day. In the case of an ordinary recess, the Senate will be adjourned for a longer period. Consecutive adjournment is set at a maximum of 10% ordinary session time, which is 28 sitting days.

Prorogation
A session in the Senate ordinary lasts for 8 months, due to the cycle elections in which every 8 months, one-third of Senate seats are up for election. After a session is about to come to an end, the Emperor officially prorogues the Senate, meaning the session will end. This has limited legislative consequences, given the refectory function of the Senate, however, progress on possible unicameral amendments proposed by the prorogued Senate will be lost. Typically, the Emperor prorogues the Senate about 2,5 week before the election, giving Senators time to campaign and return to their departments. Prorogation has a minimal length of 4 sitting days and a maximum of 28 siting days.

Dissolution
The Emperor has Imperial Prerogatives to dissolve the Senate. In case of dissolution, the Senate will immediately seize to sit and the session will be abruptly ended. Dissolution of the Senate has more far-reaching consequences than a dissolution of the house, given the cycle-elections. All Senators prior to the dissolution will be relieved and it is up to the Imperial-Governors of each department to nominate acting Senators to their State Assembly, that can hereafter be elected to serve for the remainder of the original Senators term. Dissolution will automatically come to an end after the originally scheduled next elections. Given that some Senators would not be up for election for almost two more years, dissolving the Senate has long-lasting consequences and is therefore hardly ever used.

Speaker of the Senate
The Emperor is the Speaker of the Senate. However, because the Emperor still debates and votes and thus refrains from being fully independent as the speaker idealy should be, the Senate nominates a Speaker Pro Tempore at the start of each session. Every Senator in office can become Speaker Pro Tempore.

The voting session is chaired by the Emperor, who will give the candidates time to speak and order the votes. The Senators vote privately. To become Speaker Pro Tempore, Senators need at least 39 of the 144 votes, so a second or even third round could be necessary. As soon as the Speaker Pro Tempore is nominated the Emperor will apoint him/her. The Speaker Pro Tempore thereby resigns as Senator, so will not be able to vote. The department he or she represented will be furtherly represented by an Acting Senator appointed by the State Assembly.

As soon as the new session starts the Speaker Pro Tempore will automatically lose the chair, as he or she is not longer a senator and thus can’t nominate him or herself for the speakership. The rules state however, that an elected speaker can seek re-election 2 times for ‘free’. If the speaker isn’t re-elected he or she will lose their seat permanently. If he or she is indeed re-elected two times he or she needs to win a senate election in a department if he or she desires to be re-elected for a fourth, seventh, tenth or thirteenth term (and so on).

* Speaker Høckingen was ousted after a vote of no-confidence, vacating the chair and triggering the election of of Senator Bumbura as Speaker for the remainder of the Fifteenth Session

** Due to the postponed of the 1st Cycle elections of January 2052 due to the ongoing State of Emergency, the tenure of sixteenth session was just 5 months, contrary to the ordinary tenure of 8 months.

First and Second Deputy Speaker
After the appointment of the Speaker Pro Tempore by the Emperor, he or she nominated the First Deputy Speaker. The First Deputy Speaker is elected by the Senate afterwards and can fill in for the Speaker Pro Tempore during less important debates without legislative or confirmatory votes or when the Emperor is unavailable as well during the absence of the Speaker Pro Tempore. A more important role for the First Deputy Speaker, is the ‘de facto’ leadership of the Senate. The responsibilities the Leader of the House holds in the lower house, fall upon the First Deputy Speaker in the Senate, such as moving motions forwards or assist in the naming of a Senator.

The Second Deputy Speaker is nominated and confirmed according to the same process, and has the same functions as the First Deputy Speaker, but then in the case the First Deputy Speaker is presiding or when, in very rare cases, the Speaker Pro Tempore, the Emperor and the First Deputy Speaker are all unavailable.

Contrary to the Speaker Pro Tempore, the First- and Second Deputy Speaker do not give yo their position as Senators, and can thus keep their voting rights.

Confirmation of election results
After the election of a Senate cycle, which happens every 8 months, the Senate reconvenes two days after the election in old setting. This session is by convention presided over by the demissionary Speaker Pro Tempore (to keep the Emperor out of eleciton business, the Emperor thus also usually does not attend this session). At this session, the old Senate will, just as day do for the House of Consuls declare the Senate cycle election results. The Chair of the Joint Election Committee (JEC) will come to the Senate to declare and confirm the official results in attendance of all the other Senators (including the ones who stood for the election, resigned, were defeated or re-elected). The Chair of the JEC will announce any irregularties that may, or may not have occured during the election. If a Senator objects the results in a department, he can raise his objection with the Speaker Pro Tempore if in writing and sustained by 11 other Senators (10% of the Senate). If the objection is sustained, the Senator can state the nature of his objection. If the Senate, having heard the objection, calls for a recount or even a revote, they can with an absolute majority (58 senators).

First day
After the results of the election are declared and officialy determined, the Emperor will invite all elected Senators to attend the first day of the new sitting, where he will, with the help of the Chief Clark administer the oath of office. When the 38 new Senators are sworn in for the two-year term, the Emperor opens the session and he asks for Senators to candidate themselves if they wish to become the Speaker Pro Tempore. If the demissionary Speaker Pro Tempore did not stand for election, but has been Speaker for less than 22 months, he or she can run as well, without being a Senator. All Senators, as well as the demissionary Speaker Pro Tempore, need 38 vouches to have the possibility of being appointed Speaker Pro Tempore. Usually Senators are given one or even two weeks to gather support, before the Senators vouch. In the meantime, all Senate sessions have to be chaired by the Emperor.

Speaker vouching
If the Emperor schedules the debate, all Senators that want to become the next Speaker Pro Tempore can give a discourse to the Senate to convince them to vouch for them, where Senators will have the oppurtunity to ask questions as well. When all candidates have had the oppurtunity, the Emperor will call for the vouching. All Senators choose one candidate to vouch for. If no candidate receives 38 vouches, the vote is considered inconclusive and another vote will be held. If only one candidate recieves 38 vouches he or she will be appointed Speaker Pro Tempore by the Emperor. If more than one candidate receives 38 vouches, the Emperor can choose who to appoint Speaker Pro Tempore. By convention, the Emperor chooses the Senator who got most vouches and if they had the same number of vouches, the Senator who has served the longest.

Other business
As soon as the Speaker Pro Tempore is appointed, which usually happens one day after the vouching, the Speaker Pro Tempore can nominate the First- and Second Deputy Speaker. Their nominations need to be accepted and seconded by them, and a simple majority must confirm them. Afterwards, the session returns to normal business.

Question Time
A rather important Senate debate, where all Senators tend to be present in the chamber is the Question Time on Tuesday from 15:30 until 17:00. During Question Time, the Deputy Prime-Minister comes to the Senate to answer questions on government policy All Senators can file questions to the Speaker Pro Tempore until the morning before. As a result, unlike Prime Ministers Questions in the House of Consuls, the questions are not without notice, as the Deputy Prime-Minister will be given time to consult with the Prime Minister about the questions during their weekly audience on Monday. In some cases, the Prime Minister attends himself, but, given the Deputy Prime-Minister's portfolio of Senatorial affairs, it is far more common that the Deputy Prime-Minister answers the questions.

Confirmatory debates
In some regular cases, the Senate needs to confirm or ratify decrees of the Emperor. Most notably, a State of Emergency and a State of War (thus a declaration of war) need to be ratified by the Senate no later than three months after proclamation. In making a decision, the Senate can choose to hear the Emperor or a minister on his behalf, or they can even choose to have a series of hearings to make a carefully considered decision. Many appointments done by the Emperor need to be ratified by the Senate as well, such as the Royal Ambassador. In this case hearings will be held as well.