Galactic Senate

The Galactic Alliance Senate, or Galactic Alliance Assembly, was, during the time of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, the leading legislative body of the galaxy. The Senate was the successor of the New Republic Senate of the New Republic. The Alliance Senate met in the Senate Building on Coruscant as did its predecessors.

In comparison to the Galactic Senate of the Old Republic and the New Republic Senate, the Galactic Alliance Senate possessed greatly reduced executive functions and acted primarily as the government's legislative organ.

Powers
The Galactic Senate held all national legislative powers within the GFFA, as well as the power over the budget and any amendments to the Galactic Alliance's finances. The Senate also holds the right to elect a Chief of State and the Supreme Commander, who was nominated by the Chief of State. The Senate could call a vote of no confidence against the Chief of State or the Supreme Commander, of which a majority vote could remove either.

Composition
The Senate was headed by the Chief of State alongside the Chairman of the Senate. It mainly consisted of representative assemblymen.

Chief of  State
The Chief of State was the offical head of the senate however he could not be at every session called by the chairman and thus would often delegate the chairman to lead the senate in many meetings. The chief of state would be apprised of senate meetings by the chairman at a later time. The chief of state would often appear for important sessions taht inovled legislation that he personally had a hand in.

Chairman of the Senate
The chairman of the senate lead the senate when the chief of state was not leading its sessions and assisted the chief of state in senate sessions he was involved in. He was in charge of moderating debate and conducting votes during the senate sessions.

Senators
Senators represented sectors of space within the GFFA. Each sector's governments would vote on and elect a seantor to represent the sector who in theory would represent the people indirectly. This theory however fails because local governments are free to be any type of government from a monarchy to a democracy thus people on non-democratic worlds were not represented by any elected person.

Curroption
There were sectors of space in which one goverment held 51% or more of the electorate vote either directly or indirectly (by using leverage to force other governments to vote a certain way) and thus there were senators that represented only 1 government and not all the governments of a sector. Corporations also used tactics such as threatening to pull contracts, pull out economically on a planet, or boycotting a planet altogether in order to get governments to vote the way they wish usually getting a senator proped up by that corporation into the senate. Planets far from galactic center or from a major hyperlane constantly found themselves being bullied by corporations or corporate groups that controlled a significant portion of jobs, industry, or agriculture on there planet to which the planets cannot do much about. Through these major methods that were never dealt with either constiutionally or through legislature curroption has once more run rampant throughout the Senate. It is estimated that 40 - 60% of all seantors were curropted in this fasion on average.

Legates
These were affiliate groups or members of the GFFA that were otherwise not represented by Senators, contributed heavily to the GFFA economy, or an independent organization of particular note. This position had no voting rights however allowed groups to be represented in senate sessions that otherwise would not be. Legates, while represented in general sessions, could not be admitted to secret sessions without the chairman of the seante's permission or the Chief of State depending on who was running the session. These positions were mostly filled by large corporations however the New Jedi Order were also repsented in the senate through a legate

Bodies of the Senate
As a body with a large and potentially unlimited membership, the Senate-in-whole was an almost impossibly unwieldy structure for getting work done. Consequently, most of the real governance was performed by the committees and commissions. The daily business of the Senate proper was primarily speech-making and public debate.

Committees were elected bodies with the authority to administer various aspects of Senate operations, including the general budget. They were semi-autonomous; in the event of a unanimous committee vote, the approval of the Senate-in-whole was not required (however, the Senate-in-whole could override a less-than-unanimous committee decision with a three-to-five majority).

Commissions were voluntary bodies with an advisory capacity only. They could prepare reports on issues of concern for presentation to the Chief of State or to the general membership; schedule and conduct hearings; and contract for independent research.

Defence Committee
Approves funding for the Galactic alliance Defence Force. It was also the duty of the defence council to ensure that the military did not violate any laws or regulations and to report such violations to the senate.

Commerce Committee
Charged with regulating commerce throughout the galaxy in order to ensure no one company controls any market. They also had the duty of ensuring that corporations operate within legislation passed by the senate.

Science and Technology Committee
Oversaw all matters of research and science including what research was funded and by how much. They also decided what projects were considered unethical or amoral and thus not conducted by the GFFA.

Finance Committee
In conjunction with the Financial Secretary oversaw the submittance of a budget to the Galactic Senate for approval or alterations.

Financial Appropriations Committee
Oversaw monetary grants and aide to be issues to organizations, charities, and planetary governments requesting assistance.

Allocations Committee
Supervised taxation and government revenue.

Ethics Committee
In charge of keeping oversight over the officer of the chief of state as well as anyone appointed by them. Also oversaw the Supreme Commander.