Political Constitution of Colombia (1991)

It is the responsibility of Congress to enact laws. Through them, it exercises the following functions:

To interpret, amend, and repeal laws.

To draw up codes in all areas of legislation and to amend their provisions.

To approve the national development plan and public investments that must be undertaken or continued, with the determination of the resources and appropriations which are authorized for their execution and the measures necessary to promote their implementation.

To define the general division of the territory in accordance with what is prescribed in this Constitution; setting the bases and conditions for creating, eliminating, modifying, or merging territorial entities and for establishing their jurisdictions.

To confer special powers on the departmental assemblies.

To move the present seats of the higher national authorities, under extraordinary circumstances and for important reasons of public convenience.

To determine the structure of the national administration and create, eliminate, or merge ministries, administrative departments, superintendencies, public establishments, and other entities at a national level, as well as to specify their objectives and organic structure; to regulate the creation and operation of regional autonomous corporations within a system of autonomy; and, similarly, to create or authorize the creation of industrial and commercial enterprises of the State and mixed economic societies.

To issue regulations to which the Government shall be subject in exercising the functions of inspection and oversight assigned to it by the Constitution.

To grant authorizations to the Government to enter into contracts, to negotiate loans, and to sell national assets. The Government shall periodically inform Congress on the exercise of these authorizations.

To vest, up to six months, in the President of the Republic, precise extraordinary powers to issue rules with the force of law when public necessity or advantage so advises. Such powers must be requested expressly by the Government and approval requires the vote of an absolute majority of the members of both Houses.

At any time and at its own initiative, Congress may amend decree laws enacted by the Government for the use of its extraordinary powers.

These powers may not be conferred for issuing codes, legal statutes, Institutional Acts, or anything referred to in numeral 20 of this article, or for decreeing taxes.

To establish national revenues and to determine the expenditures of the administration.

To establish fiscal contributions and, exceptionally, para-fiscal contributions as determined by statute.

To determine the legal tender, its convertibility and the extent of its discretionary power pertaining thereto, and to regulate the system of weights and measures.

To approve or reject contracts or agreements which, for reasons of evident national necessity, the President of the Republic has entered with individuals, companies, or public entities without prior authorization.

To decree honors to citizens who have rendered services to the fatherland.

To approve or reject treaties that the Government makes with other states or entities in international law. By means of these treaties and on the bases of equity, reciprocity and national convenience, the State may partially transfer specified powers to international organizations, with the intent to promote or consolidate economic integration with other states.

To grant, by a two-thirds majority of the members of both Houses or for grave reasons of public convenience, amnesties or general commutations for political crimes. In cases where the grantees are exempted from civil liability with respect to private individuals, the State must be obligated to make the proper compensations.

To enact the regulations regarding the appropriation or adjudication and reclamation of uncultivated land.

To enact general rules that specify the objectives and criteria to which the Government must be subjected for the following purposes:

To organize public credit;

To regulate foreign trade and specify the international exchange system, in agreement with the functions which the Constitution assigns to the Board of Directors of the Bank of the Republic;

To modify, for purposes of commercial policy, duties and other provisions concerning the customs system;

To regulate activities concerning finance, the stock market and insurance and any other activity connected with the management, use, and investment of resources received from the public;

To establish the system of wage and benefits concerning civil servants, members of the National Congress, and the Police Force;

To regulate the system of minimum social benefits for official workers.

These functions pertaining to social security services are not to be delegated to public territorial bodies and may not be claimed by them.

To create the administrative and technical services of the Houses.

To issue laws concerning economic intervention provided for in Article 334, which must specify their purposes and scopes and the limits to economic freedom.

To issue laws concerning the Bank of the Republic and the functions that must be performed by its Board of Directors.

To issue laws which shall regulate the exercise of public functions and the provision of public services.

To regulate the system of industrial property, patents and trademarks, and the other forms of intellectual property.

To unify regulations concerning traffic police throughout the entire territory of the Republic.

It is the responsibility of Congress to enact an organic statute on contracts concluded by the public administration and especially by the national administration.