Argentine Senate

Argentine National Senate Senado de la Nación Argentina
Type
Type	Upper house
Leadership
President of the Senate	Gabriela Michetti, PRO Since 10 December 2015
Provisional President	Federico Pinedo, PRO Since 3 December 2015
Majority Leader	Miguel Ángel Pichetto, PJ-FPV Since 10 December 2001
Minority Leader	Ángel Rozas, UCR Since 03 December 2015
Structure
Seats	72 (list)
Political groups	Coalition government      UCR (8)      PRO (6)      CC-ARI (1)      Independent (UCR) (1)      Independent (PJ) (1) Opposition groups      FPV (39)      UNA (3)      ACF (2)      MPN (2)      PJ (2)      FPV (Dissidents) (2)      Independent (PJ) (1)      Independent (PJ) (1)      (1)      Independent (1)      MPS (1)
Elections
Voting system	Limited voting
Last election	25 October 2015
Meeting place
Senate Chamber, Argentine Congress Buenos Aires, Argentina
Website
www.senado.gov.ar

Coalition government

Opposition groups

The Argentine Senate (Spanish: Honorable Senado de la Nación Argentina) is the upper house of the Argentine National Congress.

The National Senate was established by the Argentine Confederation on July 29, 1854, pursuant to Articles 46 to 54 of the 1853 Constitution. There are 72 members: three for each province and three for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. The number of senators per province was raised from two to three following the 1994 amendment of the Argentine Constitution, and the change took effect following the May 14, 1995, general elections.

Senators are elected to six-year terms by direct election on a provincial basis, with the party with the most votes being awarded two of the province's senate seats and the second-place party receiving the third seat. Historically, Senators were indirectly elected to nine-year terms by each provincial legislature. These provisions were abrogated by a 1994 constitutional amendment, and direct elections to the Senate took effect in 2001. Currently one-third of the members are elected every two years. One-third of the provinces hold senatorial elections every two years; there are no term limits. The Senate is presided over by the Vice President of the Republic, who has the casting vote in the event of ties.

The Senate must obtain quorum to deliberate, this being an absolute majority. It has the power to approve bills passed by the Chamber of Deputies, call for joint sessions with the Lower House or special sessions with experts and interested parties, and submit bills for the president's signature; bills introduced in the Senate must, in turn, be approved by the Lower House for their submittal to the president. The Senate must introduce any changes to federal revenue sharing policies, ratify international treaties, approve changes to constitutional or federal criminal laws, as well as confirm or impeach presidential nominees to the cabinet, the judiciary, the armed forces, and the diplomatic corps, among other federal posts.