Lanerian Senate

The Lanerian Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Lanerian Congress. The Senate consists of two members per Lanerian state, resulting in a current total of 100. Senators are elected to staggered six year terms with roughly one third of the Senate being elected every two years. If a senator dies in office or retires before the end of his term, the Governor of the state he represents appoints a replacement. The new senator serves out the remainder of his predecessor's term before facing elections. He does not begin a new six year term of his own upon appointment.

As the upper house, the Senate is expected to be a more deliberative and less partisan chamber than the House of Representatives. Freedom of conscience votes are the norm in the Senate and the views of party leaders or even party caucus majorities have much less influence on individual Senators than they do on individual Representatives. The Senate is also substantially less responsive to public opinion than the House. It is a political truism in Laneria that people elect Representatives because they trust them to represent the views of their constituencies while they elect Senators because they trust them to form responsible views of their own.

The President of Laneria requires the advice and consent of the Senate before he can appoint Cabinet secretaries, ambassadors, federal judges or other high officials and before he can sign treaties. However, because of Laneria's membership in the Commonwealth of Peoples, the Senate's rights and powers regarding treaties, except internal Commonwealth treaties, are largely subsumed in the Commonwealth's common foreign policy, itself guaranteed by the New Amsterdam Treaty which the Senate approved.

The Senate is located in the South Wing of the Lanerian Capitol Building, located in Worthington, the capital of Laneria. The House of Representatives is located in the North Wing of the same building.