of their house, except when taken in the act of committing an unbailable offense. In the latter case the court shall collect all the evidence and submit it to the proper house, which shall decide whether or not an indictment is to be made, unless the accused should prefer to submit to immediate trial.

ART. 21. The members of the two houses, on taking their seats, shall take a formal oath, in public session, to perform their duties faithfully.

ART. 22. During the sessions the senators and deputies shall be entitled to salaries and emoluments, the same for members of both bodies, to be fixed by the Congress at the close of each legislature, for the succeeding one.

ART. 23. No member of Congress shall, after his election, enter into contracts with the executive power, or receive from it any salaried office or commission.

Sec. 1. From this prohibition are excepted:

1) Diplomatic missions.

2) Military commands and commissions.

3) Legal promotions.

Sec. 2. No deputy or senator, shall, however, accept missions, commissions, or commands, as provided in Nos. I and 2 of the preceding section, without first obtaining the permission of the house to which he belongs, when the acceptance precludes the member from exercising his legislative functions, except in cases of war or in those in which the honor and integrity of the Union are involved.

ART. 24. No deputy or senator shall be president or director of a bank, company, or enterprise which enjoys favors from the federal government, defined by law.

Failure to observe the provisions contained in this and in the preceding article shall entail forfeiture of the seat in Congress.

ART. 25. The office of senator or deputy is incompatible with the exercise of any other functions during the sessions.

ART. 26. The following are the conditions of eligibility to the National Congress:

1) To enjoy the rights of a Brazilian citizen and be entitled to be registered as an elector.

2) For the House of Deputies, to have been a Brazilian citizen for more than four years; for the Senate, Brazilian citizenship of more than six years.

This provision does not apply to the citizens mentioned in No. 4 of Art. 69.

ART. 27. The Congress shall define, by a special law, the cases of ineligibility to Congress.

CHAPTER II. THE HOUSE OF DEPUTIES

ART. 28. The House of Deputies shall be composed of representatives of the people elected by the states and by the federal district, by direct suffrage; the representation of the minority is guaranteed.

Sec. 1. The number of deputies shall be fixed by law and shall not exceed one for every seventy thousand inhabitants, but each state shall have at least four deputies.

Sec. 2. For this purpose the federal government shall order a census of the population of the republic to be taken at once, which shall be revised every ten years.

ART. 29. To the House shall belong the initiative in the adjournment of the legislative session, of all tax laws, of laws fixing the land and naval forces, in the discussion of recommendations made by the executive power, and in the decision of the question whether the President of the Republic should or should not be impeached, under the provisions of Art. 53, and whether the cabinet ministers should or should not also be impeached for crimes committed by them jointly with the President of the republic.

CHAPTER III. THE SENATE

ART. 30. The Senate shall be composed of citizens eligible under the terms of Art. 26, who are over thirty-five years of age. There shall be three senators for each state and three

for the federal district, elected in the same manner as the deputies.

ART. 31. The term of service of the senators shall be nine years, one-third of the Senate being renewed every three years. The term of a senator elected to fill a vacancy shall continue during the remainder of the term of the senator replaced.

ART. 32. The vice-president of the republic shall be the president of the Senate, where he shall vote only in case of tie, and in case of his absence or disability, his place shall be taken by the vice-president of the Senate.

ART. 33. The Senate alone shall have the power to try and pass sentence on the President of the republic and the other federal officers designated by the constitution, under the conditions and in the manner which it prescribes.

Sec. I. The Senate, when sitting as a court of justice, shall be presided over by the president of the federal Supreme Court.

Sec. 2. It shall not pass sentence of condemnation unless by two-thirds of the members present.

Sec. 3. It shall not impose penalties other than removal from office and disqualification to hold any other office, without prejudice to the action of ordinary justice against the person condemned.

CHAPTER IV. POWERS OF THE CONGRESS

ART. 34.

power:

The National Congress shall have exclusive

1) To estimate the revenue and fix the expenditures of the federal government annually, and to examine the accounts of the receipts and expenditures of each financial year.

2) To authorize the executive power to contract loans and to conduct other operations of credit.

3) To legislate in regard to the public debt and to provide for its payment.

revenue.

To control the collection and distribution of the federal

5) To regulate foreign commerce as well as that of the states with each other and with the federal district, to establish custom-houses, to create or abolish warehouses of deposit.

6) To legislate with regard to the navigation of rivers which run through more than one state or extend into foreign territory.

7) To determine the weight, value, inscription, type, and

denomination of coins.

8) To create banks of issue, legislate in regard to their issue, and to levy taxes upon it.

9) To fix the standard of weights and measures.

10) To determine definitely, the boundaries of the states, of the federal district, and of the national territory.

II) To authorize the government to declare war, when arbitration has failed or cannot take place, and to make peace. 12) To decide definitely with regard to treaties and conventions with foreign nations.

13) To change the capital of the union.

14) To grant subsidies to the states in the case referred to in Art. 5.

15) To legislate concerning the federal postal and telegraph service.

16) To adopt the measures proper for the protection of the frontiers.

17) To fix annually the land and naval forces.

18) To regulate the organization of the army and navy. 19) To permit or prohibit the passage of foreign forces through the territory of the country for the purpose of military operations.

20) To mobilize and make use of the national guard or militia in the cases provided by the constitution.

21) To declare a state of siege at one or more places in the national territory, in the emergency of an attack by foreign

forces or of internal disturbance, and to approve or suspend the state of siege declared by the executive power, or by its responsible agents, during the recess of Congress.

22) To determine the conditions and methods of elections for federal offices throughout the country.

23) To legislate with regard to the civil, commercial, and criminal laws of the republic, and the law of federal procedure. 24) To establish uniform laws on naturalization.

25) To create and abolish federal public offices, to fix the duties of the same, and to designate their salaries.

26) To organize the federal judicial system in accordance with Arts. 55 and following of Section III.

27) To grant amnesty.

28) To commute and remit penalties imposed upon federal officers in cases of impeachment.

29) To make laws regarding lands and mines belonging to the Union.

30) To legislate with regard to the municipal organization of the federal district, as well as concerning the police, superior education, and the other services which in the capital are reserved to the federal government.

31) To govern by special legislation those places within the territory of the republic needed for the establishment of arsenals or other establishments or institutions for federal use.

32) To regulate cases of extradition between the states. 33) To enact such laws and resolutions as may be necessary for the exercise of the powers belonging to the Union. 34) To enact organic laws for the complete execution of the constitution.

35) To extend or adjourn its sessions.

ART. 35. Congress shall also have power, but not exclusively:

1) To see to the observance of the constitution and of the laws, and to provide for needs of a federal character.

2) To encourage in the country the development of litera