Governance in the CNMI

1028 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Unicameral and bicameral legislature

Is the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) better yet with a Unicameral Legislature or with the current Bicameral Legislature?
According to Wikipedia, the Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Legislature is defined as the territorial legislature of the United States of America (Wikipedia). The legislative branch of the Marianas is bicameral. It consist of twenty members in the lower House of Representatives, and an upper house Senate with nine members. The Representatives serve two-year terms, and the Senators serve four-year terms, both without term limits. Both houses of the legislature convene and conduct their meetings on the Island of Saipan, the capital island of the Northern Mariana Islands.
The House seats are elected in seven districts. Two districts have one seat each, one for Tinian & Aguiguan, and one for Rota. The remaining five districts elect multiple members, two with three members and two with six members which are all located in Saipan. According to the Mariana Islands Constitution, the requirements for House of Representative are a minimum age of 21, must be a residence of the Commonwealth for at least three consecutive years, and a registered voter in the district you represented. Reapportionment occurs every ten years following the census. Together with the Senate, the Constitution permits the Legislature to enact a higher residence requirement (CNMI Government laws).
The Senate seats are divided into three districts containing three seats each from Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. The Senate seats are divided into two classes that are similar to the classes of the United States Senate. One class consisting of a single Senator from each district, and the second class consisting of two Senators from...

... middle of paper ...

... Mariana Islands, 1998-
2013. Web. Retrieved from http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/northern_mariana_islands.htm
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Country Brief. Home page. Bilateral, Sept.
2013. Web. Retrieved from http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/cnmi/
Farrell, Don. “Tinian: A Brief History.” Tinian. (Original work published 2012)
Northern Marianas Commonwealth. Home page. Legislature, 2006. Web. Retrieved from http://www.cnmiago.gov.mp/government.html Covenant of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Home page. Web. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Mariana_Islands
Covenant. Law revision commission, 2013. Home Page. Web. Retrieved from http://cnmilaw.org/cnmicovenant.html Farrell, Don. Personal Interview. 26 Nov. 2013
Cruz, Peter. Personal Interview. 29 Nov. 2013

Show More
Related

  • Congressional Committees: The Workhorse of Legislature

    638 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are four different types of congressional committees that serve to review legislation before a vote. The categories are standing, select, conference, and joint. Standing committees are both permanent and bicameral. The standing committee ensures that legislation which falls under a common or reoccurring category will always have a committee assigned to it. Select committees, on the other hand, focus on a specific issue, and are usually only ...

    Read More

  • The Articles Of Confederation And The Constitution: An In-Depth Analysis

    934 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the key differences between the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation is in the way that they set up the Legislature. In the Articles, it is established as a unicameral legislature which it refers to as a Congress. The Constitution on the other hand establishes a bicameral legislature with an upper house, the Senate, and a lower house, the House of Representatives. The reason for this change was because different states wanted the number of representatives to be selected in different ways. Under the Articles of Confederation all States were represented equally and the bigger states felt that they should be getting more say in the decisions that the Country would be making. Needless to say the smaller states did not readily agree to this.

    Read More

  • Three Branches of the Texas Government

    1619 Words  | 4 Pages

    Our Legislative Branch has two chambers or as some will call it bicameral. The chambers consist of the Senate and the House of Representatives just like the National Legislative Branch. In our Senate we currently have a total of 31 members and there are 150 members in the House of Representatives. Senators hold their seat for 4 years and their election years are spread out while the House of Representatives are elected for two-year terms. In our Texas Legislature we have a few authority figures. “The Texas Constitution provides that the lieutenant governor shall serve as president of the senate, the presiding officer of that body. The lieutenant governor is elected statewide by voters of Texas and is the second-highest ranking officer of the executive branch of government”. (Texas Medical Associaton) In the House of Representatives we have a Speaker of the House who is chosen in each time a new legislature starts by its own members. “The speaker maintains order during floor debate, recognizing legislators who wish to speak and ruling on procedural matters.” (Joe Straus Speaker) There are also many committees who act as important gatekeepers and shape the proposed legislation. (University of Texas at Austin). The main pu...

    Read More

  • Senate Reform In Canada

    2054 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Canadian Senate was originally created in the Constitution Act of 1867 with 72 seats but as Canada expanded more seats were added and it currently has 105 seats. (Government of Canada, About the Senate) The Senate was originally formed in order to allow the Canadian elite to have a say against the House of Commons, which represented the general population. The Senate was to also provide representation to minority groups, women, and Aboriginal peoples who

    Read More

  • Electoral College Argumentative Essay

    1378 Words  | 3 Pages

    Every ten years after a census, politicians redraw the district boundaries that determine the house and state legislature. The problem with this system is that the same politicians who redraw the district boundaries are the ones who are being elected by the

    Read More

  • Essay On Brazil Constitution

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    The legislative power is composed of the bicameral National Congress, which contains the Chamber of Deputies and Federal Senate. The Chamber of Deputies has representatives of each state elected every your years by direct universal suffrage. The number of representatives is roughly proportionate to the population in each state; however, no state may have more than 70 or fewer than 8. There have been many debates over the fairness of the system. For example, there is a disproportionate share of the power to the states in the North and Northeast and not a sufficient share in the densely populated state of Sao Paulo. The Federal Senate has 81 members, composed of three representatives from each state and federal district, who s...

    Read More

  • Changing the Electoral System in Canada

    1761 Words  | 4 Pages

    Uhr, John. "Why We Chose Proportional Representation." Representation and Institutional Change: 50 Years of Proportional Representation in the Senate. By Marian Sawer and Sarah Miskin. Canberra: Dept. of the Senate, 1999. 13-40. Print.

    Read More

  • Bicameral Congress

    637 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Framers chose a bicameral system for the legislative branch of government. When still deciding what kind of system to input, the Framers looked to other countries. They observed that Great Britain had a bicameral parliament, and the system seemed to be very successful. They also weighed common sense. They knew that if they had two different chambers, each chamber would be able to “check up” on the other, preventing any abuse of power from taking place. The bicameral Congress was also a result of the Connecticut Compromise, a compromise between The New Jersey and Virginia Plans. The disagreement on those plans had led to many issues within The Articles or Confederation, a document that had been written before the Constitution. Once the compromise was established, the Constitution was much closer to being written. The Framers chose a bicameral...

    Read More

  • Dbq Essay On Tyranny

    657 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Document D it says the senate shall be composed of two senators from each state. This shows that each state will be able to have a say in the making of laws each state will be represented equally. Another thing would be that “the number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall at least have one representative( Doc D).” Since some states are larger than others they will able to have 2 or 3 representatives and smaller states will most likely have one representative. So yeah it might not be entirely equal but everyone is still able to get

    Read More

  • The Difference Between The Constitution And The Articles Of Confederation

    1121 Words  | 3 Pages

    way they are set up, the articles is unicameral legislature which refers to as congress. The

    Read More

  • United States Constitution: Article 1 Of The US Constitution

    782 Words  | 2 Pages

    Under Article 1 Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution “ All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives” .The Legislative Branch is made up of two houses of Congress that try to represent the States’ views as equally as possible. Congress is broken up into two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Under Article 1 Section 3 “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state” that are elected by the people of which the state they represent. The House of Representatives are under Article 1 Section 2 “The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people

    Read More

  • Government: Canada And China

    698 Words  | 2 Pages

    The two countries I have chosen to compare are China and Canada. Their systems of government are very different and have different powers and rolls in their country. Canada has a system of government very similar to our own. While china's government appears to be similar as well, but it is quite different. Canada's government democratic and is parliamentary in form but, very much like our own. Like all large governments it is representative democracy.

    Read More

  • Evolving Democracy: A Critique of U.S. Voting System

    1565 Words  | 4 Pages

    The 538 members are based off the current representation of the Senate and House of Representatives: 100 Senators, 435 House representatives, and 3 representatives for the District of Columbia (“What is the Electoral College?”, n.d.). A state’s representation is not how it would be expected though, as each state starts with three representatives, and then gains more proportional to its population. However, to make candidates pay more attention to smaller states, they are given more electoral votes, which are taken from larger

    Read More

  • The Role of the Senate and House of Representatives

    571 Words  | 2 Pages

    middle of paper ... ... committees of both Houses of Congress. There are 16 standing committees in the Senate and 19 in the House of Representatives.

    Read More

  • Three Main Approaches to Public Administration

    1010 Words  | 3 Pages

    State sovereignty means that the states would remain sovereign over important spheres and that more states would be created under the control of the national government. Bicameralism refers to each state being provided with equal representation regardless of the population and also means that the Senate has the authority to ratify treaties and is considered the protector of state sovereignty. Lastly, the multiple layers of representation refer to the direct power that the national government has over its citizens. This means that each citizen has direct representation in the House of Representatives and don’t always have to go through the state governments.

    Read More

More about Governance in the CNMI

Open Document