Why and How I am a Committed Radical (6th in Series): The Senate
by Frank Wynerth Summers III on Friday, April 6, 2012 at 11:13pm ·
The Senate is the body which will stand for the purpose and essence of the Union as it has always been and as it will be under the under the new Constitution I propose.
This Note will be about the First Section of Article Two in my Model Constitution. For those who want to see the Model Constitution I propose as a whole you can go to the following linK:
This is the place (or a place) to mention that there are some versions and they will need to be reconciled before this Constitutional Transformation can occur. Sometimes the difference may be as small as a punctuation mark and elsewhere there may be a phrase or two differing between the constitutional text in this or any other note in this series and the text on my blog pages. But since three-fourths of the States would have to approve the document it will surely be edited heavily and so I am not worried about these dtails too much yet. This is also the longest and most complicated section of the Model Constitution which I have excerpted into a note in this series so far. Perhaps that is a mistake. However, there is a great deal to cover as this is a much longer document than the current constitution.
This note covers the entire First Section “The Senate” of Article Two “Congress”. One reason that I have elected to cover the whole section in one Note is that we already have a Senate. That means that there is less to introduce as completely unknown material. The Senate is a bastion of American identity as well as politics however. That means that a lot of explanation and advocacy is probably suitable. Perhaps, as implied before, more than I can really allow for in this note. But, I will have a try….
In this note I am leaving out a discussion Seniority and how it has been affected under recent influences and would change in the new constitution. Further, I am leaving out a summary of the aristocratic and federal principles which the Senate emobdies because they will be discussed in so many other sections. I am leaving out a real discussion of how the legislatively elected Senators and the directly elected Senators are likely to get along. This is a very stripped down discussion because it is really a matter of adjusting and restoring our Senatorial traditions to be fully themselves and fit in with the new Imperial framework.
This proposed United States Senate is of course intended to be continuous with the current United States Senate. While the Union is new the Senate is one of many institutions which is envisaged as being reformed but nonetheless continues its existence as really the same thing.
First, like now the Senators serve the entire State and not a district within the States. Under the new regime and constitution Posessions are guaranteed at least one representative and Territories are guaranteed two but they need not be at large and their totals of constitutents are counted against total district alottments. The Senate is still unique in having a group of people working in the Senate to represent each State which is also a fully organized polity and Jurisdiction.
Second, like now the Senate shall continue to advise and consent on confirming treaties and senior officials of various kind. This and the fact that like the current Vice President the Deputy Executive Vice President is the President of the Senate Proper. These two specifics give the Senate a continuity in having a special relationship with ordinary exercise of executive power in and far the society as a whole.
Third, like the current Senate the proposed Senate is somewhat limited and restricted in taxing and apropriations bills compared to the House of Representatives more privileged position in these matters. The House is also more accessible to the whole populace which is still marginally the case now and was more the case in the past.
Fourth, the Senate as it is now and as it is proposed to be functions as a typical partner in a bicameral legislature in that it is needed to pass legislation but cannot pass it without the other chamber. As currently dual majorities and conferences will be the means of creating laws in this constitutional union.
Fifth, the Senate as it is now will be a chamber much smaller thean the House of Representatives. The Senate Proper will consist 153 compared 800 members of the House of Representatives that is a ratio of about 5 and quarter Representatives to every Senator. Currently, there are one hundred Senators to 435 Representatives which is only four and a third Representatives to each Senator. The difference in style determined by this difference is therefore maintained. That means that relative to the House the Senate will have even more opportunity to allow for individual autonomy on the floor of the Chamber.
Nonetheless, the proposed United States Senate is also supposed to be a revolutionary constitutionally transformed United States Senate. Here are some of the ways in which it is new and different.
First, all one hundred fifty three Senators from the States who together form the Senate proper will also be members with others of the Grand Senatorial Council. This Council will tie it to a whole host of new duties and influences. These include ties to the Imperial House, the Imperial Tribe’s Bouletherion, Tribunes who mostly monitor the Senate for nonwhites but also have some powers and duties outside the Senate. They are also tied to the aristocracy elsewhere in the special way that the wives named ladies of the legislatively elected Senators from each State who are qualified husbands and the wives named ladies of the First Executive Vice President and Second or Deputy Executive Vice President will be in the Council as will the Minister for the Bureau of Women’s Affairs. Also included are persons from the Lictors who police Congress and the Censors who with other duties cooperate with Jurisdictions draw the districts of Representatives. Most of all the Grand Seantorial Council has the Emperor himself as its President and while it has few duties it functions to complete the Senate as what it fully is in this sceme of governance and its own nature.
Second, all of the Congress will now be operating in a different context. The Imperial structure will change things. This note is not the place to discuss all the ways it will change things.
Third, the Senate will organize relations with the between Empire and the Union in a number of ways and Senators will become informed about the needs, strengths and weaknesses of the Imperial elements of society which will inform its ordinary operations in the Congress as well as its role in the Grand Senatorial Council and new political roles of the Chamber in the Empire.
Fourth, the Senate will be more autonomous as a focus for study, discussion and inquiry tied to its special roles. The Senate will also be a place with a bit less of the kind of equality it has sometimes had in that there are different kinds of Senators. Also though the Grand Senatorial Council is not an ordinary legislature it will still shatter the perfect equality of the States in physical presence on site. Then also the stronger role of the President of the Senate will also make equality more imperfect. Further, it is not mentioned in this part of the Constitution but one Senator will ordinarily be a member of the Cabinet of of the First Executive Vice President. This person will serve as the designated Executive Liaison in the Chamber in ordinary times. The Second or Deputy Executive Vice President will have other duties and these will prevent him really representing the Executive daily. The House of Representatives will also have its Cabinet Secretary to fulfill a similar role.
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Section One: The Senate
Subsection One: The Senators from the States
All fifty-one states would elect two Senators as the currently do as well as one elected by the Legislature of each state. That legislative electee would serve for twelve years at a time and if not enrolled as an ordinary Noble or Aristocrat under the rules of one of the Compacts to which the Sate belongs could only serve one term and regardless that Senator must be from the rolls of some part of the Fivefold nobility before the election. These 153 Senators would be the only regular Senators capable of voting for most things but there would be others who had limited functions. The Second Executive Vice President would be President of the Senate. there would be only 154 regular Senatorial votes (with the Senate President voting last when it will create or break a tie under fair procedure). The Emperor will not be a Senator or member of the Senate but will be President of the Grand Senatorial Council will number 200 or a little over that number and will have some key but very limited roles. The Senate will continue its roles from the 1789 Constitution. It will be the Upper Chamber of the Federal Legislature, will be required to advise and consent to Treaties and appointments of those senior Federal officals analogous to those it has confirmed under the Second Union. In addition it will advise and consent to the appointment of three of the four Justices of the US Supreme Court who will now come from outside the Federal system proper. One will be appoined by the Imperial Tribal Council known as the Bouletherion, one will be appointed by the Empress, one will be appointed by the DIG Legislature. The Chief Justice in this Union will be appointed by the Emperor with advice and consent of the Grand Royal Imperial House and Household Assembly (GRIHHA) and shall not be subject to Senatorial confitmation. The Senators will also advise and consent all parties authorized to create official and binding charters for the Rolls of the Nobility of the Chamber which shall be one of the branches of the Fivefold Nobility. These Senators alone Constitute the Senate as an ordinary elective chamber and only their votes and that of the President of the Senate who is also the Second or Deputy Executive Vice President are required or calculated to pass laws. No proportion of legislators required for law of the Union or a Constitutional Ammemndment of most types shall include others than the Senate Propoer. For all ordinary legal purposes speaking of the Senate takes into account other persons than the Senators from the States.
Subsection Two: The Grand Senatorial Council
The Grand Senatorial Council must certify by simple majority a change of dynasty after such has been achieved by a Conclave of election. It shall have the power to Impeach members of the US Supreme Court or to Convict those Impeached but may not do both. It shall certify the Rolls submitted by States to their Compacts of Jurisdictions. It shall have the power by three-fourths majority to commute any death sentence in the Empire. It shall certify the Circuit Approval stage of Constituional Ammendments by sixty percent vote. It shall maintain an “Institute of Senatorial Studies”.
1. The Tribunes
There would be no Tribunes with absolute veto like Rome but their would be Two Senior and Four Junior Tribunes elected by the Territories and One Senior and Two Junior Tribunes elected by the possessions. The Tribunes on their own will maintain a trust of one half of one mil of all funds collected in any way by the Union and Empire from the Territories and Possessions. They have use of the proper interest and earnings from these funds will from thse funds awrd grants, micro loans and honors funds. They shall maintain a fifty person Tribune’s Marshalls service. They shall have a menu of limited vetoes, the power of subpoena and the right to convene a special session of the Grand Senatorial Council no more than once in every ten years.
2. The Senatorial Ladies: Minister of the Bureau of Women’s Affairs, Wife of FEVP, Wife of SDEVP, Council of Wives of Twelve Year Senators These are the first seated in the Grand Senatorial Council. The number alotted will be one third the number of States rounded down plus three. Those wives in these catgories shall rotate the offices among themselves serving once in every three years. Should an official have multiple full wives only the highest ranking shall qualify and should there be no ranking then none will qualify. How many wives are available for these posts will vary depending upon how many of the Vice Presidents and Senators are married men. Husbands and substitutes shall not be permitted. The Minister for the Bureau of Women’s Affairs will nominate all the unfilled seats in this section of the council to serve in proxy filling those powers and duties due any given seat.
3. DIG Magistrates for the District of Columbia
The Direct Imperial Government will appoint two senior officials from the Government of DC which is alsothe Imperial Capital City to serve on this Council.
4. DIG Officials for the Ethnos Arkadios
The DIG will appoint five members of the Bouletherion who are also DIG Officials to this Council.
5. Imperial Household Capital Council
The GRIHHA will have a designated set of five officials who are part of this council.
These first five sections when meeting alone will be known as the Senate Auxillary Council. They will have the power to hold select committees, to subpoena evidence, to shedule intergovernmental activities in the capital to some degree and to suspend Senatorial staff. One half of one mil of all funds collected by the Union shall be administered jointly by them and the Imperial Household in a Capital City Trust. They shall meet at least twice on their own every year for at least a week each time.
6. The Senators are seated in this order but are unique in that they only meet in the Grand Senatorial Council meets as a whole. They may not sit in the Senate Auxillary Council nor the Senate Police Council. The Senators will however elect from their own number three persons who along with two appointees of the Emperor, one appointee of the Empress, three electees of the Senate Auxillary Council and three electees of the Senate Police Council shall form the Board of Governors of the Grand Senatorial Council of which the Emperor shall also be President.
7. The Second and Deputy Executive Vice President is the first in line of succession to the First Executive Vice President and upon assuming this office shall have already paid fealty to the Emperor and Supreme President. He may therefore assume duities before the official homage. He is President of the Senate and of the Senatorial Police Council.
8. The Commanders of Lictors. These are the three ranking Commanders who shall be in charge of a special honor guard, Capitol police and marshall service known as the Lictors. These are to be one hundred exceptional men with records at arms who have not served in the US military per se in the last five years prior to entry. No more than a third may have served in the Imperial forces proper and no more than half should ever have served in the US forces proper.
9. The Censors Governors are the next group. The Censors shall elect three of their own Governors from among themselves. These Censors Governors will be part of the Senate Police Council as well as the Grand Senatorial Council. The Censors shall be composed of retired Presidents and Justices of the US Supreme Court from the preceding constitution as well as retired Vice Presidents over seventy from that constitution. It shall also include a list of very senior officials with varied age delays and exit delays for each post. Operating under the guidance that nSX +nT1.25X+nP1.5X= total population of the Empire less those in the DIG Jurisdiction and that 800 = S+T+P+M+4+(3to5) The Censor will collaborate with jurisdictions to create seat districts for the members of the House of Representatives using this structure but seeking the representation is of the total population plus the eligible military population on bases. They would also have responsibility for public ethics and morals. This will be done with a menu of subpoenas and censures, standing to file amicus curiae briefs in any court in the Empire and the right to Summon the Grand Senatorial Council to meet in a special session once every ten years.
10. The Emperor shall be the President of the Grand Senatorial Council but not of the Senate or the two other councils. One half of the monies paid each year from the Special Tax Alottment and Settlement on the Imperial House and Household will be paid to the Grand Senatorial Council Fund as will half of all fines collected by Lictors, Censors and Tribunes One half of one percent of all revenues of all kinds received by the DIG government of the District of Columbia shall also be paid to this Council. They shall meet for a week before the Official Opening of Congress as well as for a special session of one week the Emperor may call every year and for other such special sessions. The Emperor shall be presented with the number of seats short of 200 persons in the Grand Senatorial Council at each session and shall fill those seats by fiat. Half the seats will be from his Upper Line of Succession and half from elsewhere. The Emperor shall annually give an address to the Grand Sanatorial Council on the State of the Empire. That shall be distinct from the State of the Union address given by the First Executive Vice President to the joint Houses of Congress.
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So if you have the energy to discuss this with friends that would be great. But the basic point here in this First Section “The Senate” of Article Two “The Congress” is that for our system to work there must be a Senate which is both very Federal and also arisotcratic while containing large continuity of it increasingly democratic character. This Senate is at the heart of that Union and it collaboration with Emperor and Empire which will constitute the Heart of the politics of the New Constitutional Regime as something authoritative. This is not now nor ever has been a democratic republic but rather is a mixed government Constitutional Union of mixed government republics. Under this Model Constitution the society has evolved into an Empire and Union uniting various kinds of polities and with a royal monarchy in an Imperial framework. The Senate were always Federal and somewhat aristocratic but is more so and more different ifrom the House in the Model Constitution than under the Constitution currently in force. The real Constitutional Senate is made up of 153 Senator equally apportioned among the States — two are popularly elected and one is elected by the legislature. Part of Puerto Rico is formed into the 51st and last state. This body is the regular legislature and preserves the continuity demanded by the current Second Union and the earlier First Union. However, it’ s members are all part of a Grand Senatorial Council which involves it with the Imperial Tribe, the Censors, Lictors and Tribunes as well as the Emperor Himself. The functions of the Council are delineated in such a way that the Senate itself is clearly preserved but it is empowered to connect the union effectively to the Aristocratic and more noble elements of the society and regime as a whole. The Grand Sentorial Council does not connect with the House of Representatives and so to be a Senator is both to be part of the Senate as the Upper Chamber and to be Senatorial in character as an official involved in specific dities of the Senate alone.
I have tagged a few FB friends and I will in some or all my notes. Any kind of political radicalism at any time is a risk for those associated with it and so I am keeping the tagging to a minimum and while a great deal of endorsement will be needed to effect these changes there is no indication that someone tagged in a note in this series is actually endorsing the note. As always I am willing to respond to posted comments, chat and private messages.
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