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Federal Senate Senado Federal
Type
Type	Upper House
Leadership
President of the Federal Senate	José Sarney, PMDB since February 2nd, 2009
Structure
Members	81
Political groups	21 Worker's Party Brazilian Democratic Movement Party Brazilian Social Democracy Party Democrats Progressive Party Brazilian Socialist Party Democratic Labour Party Brazilian Labour Party Liberal Party Socialist People's Party Green Party Communist Party of Brazil Social Christian Party Socialism and Freedom Party Party of the Reconstruction of the National Order Party of National Mobilization Christian Labour Party Humanist Party of Solidarity Labour Party of Brazil Party of the Nation's Retirees Brazilian Republican Party
Election
Last election	October 1, 2006
Meeting place
National Congress Building Brasília Federal District Brazil
Website
www.senado.gov.br

Brazil

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The Federal Senate of Brazil (Portuguese: Senado Federal do Brasil) is the upper house of the National Congress of Brazil. Created by the first Constitution of the Brazilian Empire in 1824, it was inspired in United Kingdom's House of Lords, but with the Proclamation of the Republic in 1889 it became closer to the United States Senate.

Currently, the Senate comprises 81 seats. Three Senators from each of the 26 states and three Senators from the Federal District are elected on a majority basis to serve eight-year terms. Elections are staggered so that two-thirds of the upper house is up for election at one time and the remaining one-third four years later.

The current president of the Brazilian Senate is José Sarney, from the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party of Amapá. He was elected in early 2009 for a two-year term.

Contents 1 History 2 Current Senators 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] History

The Federal Senate of Brazil was first established by the Constitution of 1824, the first enacted after the Declaration of Independence.

Following the independence, in 1822, Emperor Pedro I ordered the convocation of a National Assembly to compose the country's first Constitution. Following several disagreements with the elected deputies (which included representatives from present-day Uruguay, then part of the Brazilian Empire under the name of Provícia Cisplatina), the Emperor dissolved the Assembly and, in 1824, implemented the first Constitution, in which it was established that the Legislative branch would comprise a lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, and an upper house.

The first configuration of the Senate was a consulting body to the Emperor. Membership was for life and it was a place of great prestige, to which only a small part of the population could aspire.

Members of the Senate were elected, but they had to be at least 40 years old and, which was more significant as a limiting factor, an annual income of 800,000 contos-de-réis was necessary in order to run for office. Furthermore, voters were selected by income as well. In order to be able to vote in the election, any man (women did not vote in the Brazilian Empire) was required to have an annual income of at least 200,000 contos-de-réis. But those who qualified to vote with this income would not vote directly for the Senators; instead, they voted for other people, who were candidates to be Senator electors. In order to run for this position, a minimal annual income of 400,000 contos-de-réis was required. Once elected, these electors would vote for senator. The election itself would not turn out a winner automatically. The three highest-voted candidates in each circumscription would make up what was called a "triple list", from which the Emperor would select one individual that would be considered "elected". The Emperor usually picked the highest-voted individual, but it was within his discretion to select whichever of the three individuals listed. The only exception for these rules were the Princes of the Brazilian Imperial House, who were senators by right and would take a seat in the Senate upon reaching 25 years old.

The original Senate had 50 members, representing all of the Empire's Provinces, each with a number of senators proportional to its population.

The first session of the first Senate took place on May 1826, following repeated delays from the Emperor in calling the first election after the inception of the 1824 Constitution; which had led to repeated accusations that the Emperor would be attempting to establish an absolutist government.

[edit] Current Senators

State	Senator	Party	Term	Notes
Acre	Geraldo Mesquita	PMDB	2003–2011
Acre	Marina Silva	PV	2003–2011
Acre	Tião Viana	PT	2007–2015
Alagoas	Fernando Collor	PTB	2007–2015
Alagoas	João Tenório	PSDB	2003–2011	Substitute for Teotônio Vilela Filho
Alagoas	Renan Calheiros	PMDB	2003–2011
Amapá	Gilvam Borges	PMDB	2003–2011
Amapá	José Sarney	PMDB	2007–2015	President of the Senate
Amapá	Papaléo Paes	PSDB	2003–2011
Amazonas	João Pedro Gonçalves da Costa	PT	2007–2015	Substitute for Alfredo Nascimento
Amazonas	Arthur Virgílio	PSDB	2003–2011
Amazonas	Jefferson Praia	PDT	2003–2011	Substitute for Jefferson Peres
Bahia	Antônio Carlos Magalhães Júnior	DEM	2003–2011	Substitute for Antônio Carlos Magalhães
Bahia	César Borges	PR	2003–2011
Bahia	João Durval	PDT	2007–2015
Ceará	Inácio Arruda	PCdoB	2007–2015
Ceará	Patrícia Saboya Gomes	PSB	2003–2011
Ceará	Tasso Jereissati	PSDB	2003–2011
Distrito Federal	Adelmir Santana	DEM	2003–2011	Substitute for Paulo Octávio
Distrito Federal	Cristovam Buarque	PDT	2003–2011
Distrito Federal	Gim Argello	PTB	2007–2015	Substitute for Joaquim Roriz
Espírito Santo	Magno Malta	PR	2003–2011
Espírito Santo	Gérson Camata	PMDB	2003–2011
Espírito Santo	Renato Casagrande	PSB	2007–2015
Goiás	Demóstenes Torres	DEM	2003–2011
Goiás	Lúcia Vânia	PSDB	2003–2011
Goiás	Marconi Perillo	PSDB	2007–2015
Maranhão	Edison Lobão Filho	DEM	2008–2011	Substitute for Edison Lobão
Maranhão	Epitácio Cafeteira	PTB	2007–2015
Maranhão	Mauro Fecury	PMDB	2009–2011	Substitute for Roseana Sarney
Mato Grosso	Jayme Campos	DEM	2007–2015
Mato Grosso	Gilberto Goellner	DEM	2008–2011	Substitute for Jonas Pinheiro
Mato Grosso	Serys Slhessarenko	PT	2003–2011
Mato Grosso do Sul	Delcídio Amaral	PT	2003–2011
Mato Grosso do Sul	Marisa Serrano	PSDB	2007–2015
Mato Grosso do Sul	Válter Pereira	PMDB	2003–2011	Substitute for Ramez Tebet
Minas Gerais	Eduardo Azeredo	PSDB	2003–2011
Minas Gerais	Eliseu Resende	DEM	2007–2015
Minas Gerais	Wellington Salgado de Oliveira	PMDB	2003–2011	Substitute for Hélio Costa
Pará	Flexa Ribeiro	PSDB	2003–2011	Substitute for Duciomar Costa
Pará	José Nery Azevedo	PSOL	2003–2011	Substitute for Ana Júlia Carepa
Pará	Mário Couto	PSDB	2007–2015
Paraíba	Cícero Lucena	PSDB	2007–2015
Paraíba	Efraim Morais	DEM	2003–2011
Paraíba	Roberto Cavalcanti	PRB	2009–2011	Substitute for José Maranhão
Paraná	Álvaro Dias	PSDB	2007–2015
Paraná	Flávio Arns	PT	2003–2011
Paraná	Osmar Dias	PDT	2003–2011
Pernambuco	Jarbas Vasconcelos	PMDB	2007–2015
Pernambuco	Marco Maciel	DEM	2003–2011
Pernambuco	Sérgio Guerra	PSDB	2003–2011
Piauí	Heráclito Fortes	DEM	2003–2011
Piauí	João Vicente Claudino	PTB	2007–2015
Piauí	Mão Santa	PMDB	2003–2011
Rio de Janeiro	Francisco Dornelles	PP	2007–2015
Rio de Janeiro	Marcelo Crivella	PRB	2003–2011
Rio de Janeiro	Paulo Duque	PMDB	2003–2011	Substitute for Sérgio Cabral Filho
Rio Grande do Norte	Garibaldi Alves Filho	PMDB	2003–2011
Rio Grande do Norte	José Agripino	DEM	2003–2011
Rio Grande do Norte	Rosalba Ciarlini	DEM	2007–2015
Rio Grande do Sul	Paulo Paim	PT	2003–2011
Rio Grande do Sul	Pedro Simon	PMDB	2007–2015
Rio Grande do Sul	Sérgio Zambiasi	PTB	2003–2011
Rondônia	Expedito Júnior	PR	2007–2015
Rondônia	Fátima Cleide	PT	2003–2011
Rondônia	Valdir Raupp	PMDB	2003–2011
Roraima	Augusto Botelho	PT	2003–2011
Roraima	Mozarildo Cavalcanti	PTB	2007–2015
Roraima	Romero Jucá	PMDB	2003–2011
Santa Catarina	Ideli Salvatti	PT	2003–2011
Santa Catarina	Neuto de Conto	PMDB	2003–2011	Substitute for Leonel Pavan
Santa Catarina	Casildo Maldaner	PMDB	2007–2015	Substitute for Raimundo Colombo
São Paulo	Aloizio Mercadante	PT	2003–2011
São Paulo	Eduardo Suplicy	PT	2007–2015
São Paulo	Romeu Tuma	PTB	2003–2011
Sergipe	Almeida Lima	PMDB	2003–2011
Sergipe	Antônio Carlos Valadares	PSB	2003–2011
Sergipe	Virginio de Carvalho	PSC	2007–2015	Substitute for Maria do Carmo Alves
Tocantins	João Ribeiro	PR	2003–2011
Tocantins	Kátia Abreu	DEM	2007–2015
Tocantins	Leomar Quintanilha	PMDB	2003–2011

[edit] See also

• Federal institutions of Brazil

[edit] External links

• Official website of the Brazilian Senate
• (Portuguese) Photos 360º of the Brazilian Senate
• List of all Brazilian senators (1826-2009; in Portuguese)

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