Senate of Brazil

See also:
Brasilia homepage
Brasilia: Brazil political center
Brazilian Parliament

In the Brazilian political system, the Senate represents the States. Regardless of size, population, economic power or any other attribute, each of the Brazilian States and also the Federal District are represented by three Senators.
The competences of the Senate are determined by article 52 of the Brazilian Constitution. Besides proposing and voting laws, the Brazilian Senate has, among others, the following duties: trial the President in cases of political misconduct; approve foreign financial transactions, including those which involve States and municipalities; approve the names of authorities appointed by the President of Republic, such as Justices of the Supreme Courts, directors of the Central Bank, foreigner diplomats and others; establish limits for the total public debt; etc.

The Floor of the Senate is inside the hemi-sphere looking down (the most common word in Portuguese to refer to the Floor is "Plenário", from Latin Plenarium, meaning: place where all meet). This is so because, according to architect Oscar Niemeyer, the Senate is a conservative House, closed into itself; the Chamber, on the other hand, is a House more open to new ideas, hence its hemi-sphere is looking up.

The photos above show the inside of the floor of the Senate, seen from the galleries.
The left most image shows the Directing Board of the Senate; the President, vice-President and Secrataries of Senate are elected among Senators for one two year term. The photo also shows one of the Tribunes of the Senate (to the left of board, near the smaller Brazilian flag). The two pairs of seats in front of the Board are occupied by stenographers, who anotate everything which is said in the Floor for later adition to the records of Senate.
The central picture shows the seats of the Senators; each Senator has his own seat, differently from the Federal Chamber, where the Deputies have no fixed seat. Another difference is that each Senator has a microphone at his own seat; in the Chamber, Deputies must walk to the front of the floor to use one of the microphones.
The photo to the right shows the electronic panel, where results of votings are displayed. During the votings, the identity of Senators is verified by a finger print reader; while one thumb is on the finger print scanner, the Senator uses his other hand to push either Yes or No voting button.

The Senate is open for visitations, from Monday through Friday, from 9 am to 5 pm. Tours in Portuguese only.

A guide takes visitors to the premises of both Senate and the Chamber.
Notice that there are different visits conducted by guides of the Senate and of the Chamber; both tours follow about the same path inside the Parliament, but the explanations are different.

In the corridors of the Senate, there is a permanent exposition of the History of the Brazilian Senate; the photos depict historical moments of the Brazilian political life.

Visit the official website of the Senate of Brazil.
Also, check out images live from the Senate at the TV Senado page.