Lanerian Congress

The Lanerian Congress is the legislature of the Lanerian federal government. It is bicameral, comprising the Lanerian Senate and the Lanerian House of Representatives. The Lanerian House of Representatives consists of 411 members, divided proportionally among the states according to population. Members are elected to two year terms in a single member district first past the post system. The Senate consists of 100 members. Each state has two senators, regardless of size. Senators are elected to staggered six year terms. Each senator from a Lanerian state represents the entire state.

The Lanerian system of government does not allow for full legislative sovereignty. The Lanerian Congress is limited in what it may do by checks on its power placed in the hands of the President and the Supreme Court, by rights reserved to individuals and states by the Lanerian Constitution and by the terms of the New Amsterdam Treaty and the other treaties forming the legal framework of the Commonwealth of Peoples.

While both houses of the Congress are coequal, some powers belong only to one house. The Senate's approval is required for the President's appointment of ambassadors, Cabinet secretaries and certain other high officials. Acts of impeachment or acts of a financial nature, on the other hand, must originate in the House of Representatives.