House of Representatives (Netherlands)

House of Representatives Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal
States General of the Netherlands
Type
Type	Lower House
Leadership
Speaker	Khadija Arib, Labour Party Since 13 January 2016
First Deputy Speaker	Ton Elias, People's Party for Freedom and Democracy Since 13 January 2016
Structure
Seats	150
Political groups	Government (75)      VVD (40)      PvdA (35) Opposition parties (75)      SP (15)      CDA (13)      PVV (12)      D66 (12)      CU (5)      GL (4)      SGP (3)      PvdD (2)      50PLUS (1)      Independents (8)
Elections
Voting system	Party-list proportional representation D'Hondt method
Last election	12 September 2012
Next election	15 March 2017 or earlier
Meeting place
Binnenhof The Hague, Netherlands
Website
House of Representatives Tweede Kamer

     Government (75)

Opposition parties (75)

The House of Representatives (Dutch: Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal [ˈtʋeːdə ˈkaːmər dɛr ˈstaːtə(n) ˌɣeːnəˈraːl] or simply Tweede Kamer, literally "Second Chamber") is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of the Netherlands, the States General, the other one being the Senate. It has 150 seats which are filled through elections using a party-list proportional representation. It sits in the Binnenhof in The Hague.

Although this body is called the "House of Representatives" in English, this is not a direct translation of its Dutch name, the "Second Chamber" or more colloquially just the "Chamber". Rather than "representatives" (afgevaardigden), members of the House are referred to as Tweede Kamerlid ("member of the Second Chamber").

The House of Representatives is the main chamber of parliament, where discussion of proposed legislation and review of the actions of the cabinet takes place. Both the Cabinet and the House of Representatives itself have the right to propose legislation; the House of Representatives discusses it and, if adopted by a majority, sends it on to the Senate. Review of the actions of the cabinet takes the form of formal interrogations, which may result in motions urging the cabinet to take, or refrain from, certain actions. No individual may be a member of both parliament and cabinet, except in a caretaker cabinet that has not yet been succeeded when a new House is sworn in.