Legislative Branch

              The legislative branch is bicameral, made up of two houses; the Senate and the House of Representatives, which compose both sides of the Congress. Although these two houses are equal in formal power, there a very different in appointment methods and some specific duties.

The Congress is elected by both direct popular vote, and appointed by tribes that were previously accepted by the ARFX. The tribe proposal process will be further explained later in the charter’s proposal.

The legislative branch has many rights and duties some of which are to write, debate, and ultimately submit bills to the president with the intent of forming new laws. But also the collective houses have the power to declare war on a foreign country, establish budget policies, and maintain a military; however these rights are divided thoroughly between the houses for various reasons. Both houses separately and collectively have the power to completely oversee the executive branch and all of its programs and agencies, such as the president’s Department of Defense and Justice. Since they are the most diverse government institution representing various people and idea’s we see it fit that they have the power to serve as a guide and a parent to other branches of the government. On occasion they have the ability to impeach any government official and amend the constitution if they see it fit to better serve the people.

The two houses in our legislative system will be similar, arguably equivalent in stature and dignity, but there will be vast differences in how each member of the respective houses is elected. One house, the senate, will elect neither members based on voting by the total population of a tribe where there is a limit of two senators for each tribe. The other house, the House of Representatives, will represent the direct vote of the population of tribe, where the population of a tribe will determine amount Representative seats they will hold in the Congress.

A tribe cannot be initiated by any group of people that decides to conjoin and declare themselves a unique people. A tribe will be defined by law as a group of people that has any of the following; traditions, culture, religion, and/or ethnicity unique to their tribe. Before a group of people can be seen in the eyes of the law as legally linked by tribe, they must organize, elect a leader then formally submit their ‘tribe proposal’ to the ARFX. The ARFX will then after an internal meeting six months before the date of election in which they will decide which potential tribes will be selected. Then the individual tribes will have preliminary elections to determine who their nominees are. The preliminary elections will be held three months before the actual elections. This will provide candidates time to promote themselves and commence campaigning.

This type of bicameral system will ensure the more people within a tribe the more representatives they will have in the house. But each accepted tribe would get mandatory 2-senate members. Requirements for both representatives and senate members; must be at least twenty five years old, must be a citizen for at least ten years, and they must live in the tribe they represent.

The roles that the House of Representatives have primarily are that they can start laws that make people pay taxes and they decide if a government official should be put on trial before the Senate if he/she commits a crime against the country. This power of the House is called impeachment. Impeachment is the process of voting an government official out of power. According to the United States Constitution Article II, section 4 "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors..."(The Constitution). This definition in the Xlandia is a fair and appropriate way of dealing with officials who aren’t fit for the position they have risen to. Therefore on the basis of impeachment Xlandia will adopt America’s view on the impeachment process.

The roles that Senate members have are that they can deny or accept treaties that the president makes, can hold a trial for any government official who has been accused of wrong doing. Also they can deny any person that the president has recommended for cabinet officers, Supreme Court justices, and ambassadors. There is no limit on how long either of the congress people can serve.

Congress will have official meetings every 3 months, or in case of a national emergency. The congress will be Xlandia’s form of a parliament system. So, it will have more power than the congress in the U.S. Because it coincides with a presidential system, it will guide our country. Also, it will have some input as to who becomes the president of Xlandia. The people will be mostly responsible for making the decision. However, the congress will also have a small part in deciding. The process will go as follows: The people’s vote will be counted out of 90%. So, whatever each candidate gets percentage-wise, that number will be multiplied by .9. The remaining 10% will be decided by the congress. For example, if the top three candidates get 50%, 30%, and twenty%, their actual percentages would be 45%, 27%, and 1eight%. After the people vote, the congress would then vote, and depending on their vote, the candidates’ percentage would be raised. For example if the candidate who had 45% of the vote (after multiplying it by .9) received all of congress’s vote he would then have 55% of the vote.