The National Congress (Spanish: Congreso Nacional) of Chile is the legislative branch of the government of the Republic of Chile.
The National Congress of Chile was founded on July 4, 1811. It is a bicameral legislature comprised by the Chamber of Deputies (lower house), of 120 members and by the Senate (upper house), formed by 38 parliamentarians.
The organisation of Congress and its powers and duties are defined in articles 42 to 59 of the current constitution and by the Constitutional Organic Law No. 18,918. Congress meets in the Chile Congress building, which was built during the last years of the Pinochet regime and stands in the port city of Valparaíso, some 140 km west of the capital, Santiago. This new building replaced the old National Congress, located in downtown Santiago.
Famous quotes containing the words national and/or congress:
“The national distrust of the contemplative temperament arises less from an innate Philistinism than from a suspicion of anything that cannot be counted, stuffed, framed or mounted over the fireplace in the den.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“This habit of free speaking at ladies’ lunches has impaired society; it has doubtless led to many of the tragedies of divorce and marital unhappiness. Could society be deaf and dumb and Congress abolished for a season, what a happy and peaceful life one could lead!”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)