Galactic Senate (Earth-7642)

The **Galactic Senate**, also referred to as the **United Planets Senate**, was the legislative and executive branch of the United Planets that was located on Trantor Prime. Seats on the Senate were filled by representatives from the various United Planets members.

Its primary duties were to mediate any disputes between star systems, worlds and cultures, to regulate trade between systems, to protect and care for citizens in need and to provide mutual defense in face of threats to the United Planets. The Galactic Senate was the successor of the Provisional Council and the Federal Alliance Civil Government.

## Powers

The Senate was the legislative and executive power of the United Planets. It also had limited judicial authority, presumably for high-profile plaintiffs or cases too controversial for the Court of Justice. Such cases included trying Senators for treason, crimes against civilization and presumably corruption and treason of the Chief of State.

Each senator was limited to introducing one bill per year, with a straight up-down vote required to get the bill out of committee and to the Senate as a whole.

## Composition

The Senate was headed by the Chief of State, elected by a vote of the Senate from amongst its delegates, alongside the Chair of the Senate, also elected and removed by the Senate, wielded far more power being empowered to open, close and moderate debate on each motion, which allowed him to control agenda within the Senate.

The Galactic Senate was made up of over 2,000 congressmen: governor-delegates (referred to as senators) and representatives, representing sectors, systems, or individual planets. Some were elected directly, while others were appointed by a planet's ruler. Diplomats, religious figures, local political leaders, and other prominent people could also address the Senate as part of a senatorial delegation.

Each Senator has a single vote, regardless of the population represented. Affiliate members were represented on the Capital by a Legate, who could speak in general sessions of the Senate, but not vote on official Senate business (to avoid dual representation) or serve in the Senate's various working bodies. The full Senate convened on a regular basis, although the meetings were unscheduled in advance, and could sometimes even reach up to one hundred full assemblies per year.

### Structure

As a body with a large and potentially unlimited membership, the Senate-in-whole was an almost impossibly unwieldy structure for getting work done. Consequently, most of the real governance was performed by the Senate's councils, committees, and commissions. The daily business of the Senate proper was primarily speech-making and public debate.

Councils were appointed bodies with autonomous decision-making and appropriation authority over some segment of government operations outside the Senate proper (for example, the Defense Council, which oversaw the United Planets Defense Force). The most populous and powerful members of the United Planets were disproportionately represented on the Senate's councils.

Committees were elected bodies with the authority to administer various aspects of Senate operations, including the general budget. They were semi-autonomous; in the event of a unanimous committee vote, the approval of the Senate-in-whole was not required (however, the Senate-in-whole could override a less-than-unanimous committee decision with a three-to-five majority).

Commissions were voluntary bodies with an advisory capacity only. They could prepare reports on issues of concern for presentation to the Chief of State, to the Minister of State, to the Supreme Commander, or to the general membership; schedule and conduct hearings; and contract for independent research.