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.

The Congress shall issue Institutional Acts regulating the exercise of legislative activity. Through them, the rules of procedure of Congress and of each House, regulations concerning the preparation, approval, and execution of the Budgetary Revenues and Appropriations Law, and the execution of the general development plan and those relative to the assignment of regulatory responsibilities to the territorial entities shall be established. The Institutional Acts shall require, for their approval, an absolute majority of the votes of the members of both Houses.

By way of status Acts (leyes estatuarias) the Congress of the Republic shall regulate the following subject areas:

Fundamental rights and duties of individuals and the proceedings and resources for their protection;

Administration of justice;

Organization and regulations of parties and political movements; the formal statute of the opposition and electoral functions;

Institutions and machinery of citizen participation;

States of exception.

The equal electoral treatment of candidates for the Presidency of the Republic who comply with the requirements established by statute.

The National Government or the members of Congress shall present before March 1, 2005 the draft of a statutory law which implements letter f) of Article 152 of the Constitution and regulates, in addition, the following matters: guarantees for the opposition, the participation of civil servants in politics, the right of equal access to communications media which make use of the electromagnetic spectrum, the predominantly state financing of presidential election campaigns, the right to reply in conditions of equality when the President of the Republic is a candidate, and rules about disabilities of presidential candidates.

The draft law shall be accompanied by a declaration of urgency and may be subject to a declaration of insistence [by Congress with regard to its referral to the Constitutional Court]. The Congress of the Republic enacts the status Act before June 20, 2005. The period for the exercise of the preventive control of constitutionality of the draft statutory law by the Constitutional Court is reduced by half.

The approval, amendment or repeal of status Acts shall require an absolute majority of the votes of the members of Congress and shall be completed within a single legislative term. Said procedure shall include the prior review by the Constitutional Court to make the proposal attainable. Any citizen may intervene to defend it or to oppose it.

Statutes may originate in either of the Houses at the proposal of their respective members, the national government, the entities stipulated in Article 156, or through popular initiative in the cases provided for by the Constitution.

However, the government may dictate or amend only those laws covered by paragraphs 3, 7, 9, 11, and 22 and by subparagraphs (a), (b), and (e) of numeral 19 of Article 150; those which decree contributions to national revenues or transfers of same; those which authorize contributions or grants by the State to industrial or commercial enterprises; and those which decree exemptions from taxes, contributions, or national levies.

The Houses may introduce amendments to the bills presented by the government.

Legislative bills concerning taxes shall be initiated in the House of Representatives while those involving international relations shall be initiated in the Senate.

Legislative bills or those involving constitutional amendments may be introduced by a number of citizens equal to or greater than five percent of the existing electoral rolls at the respective date or by thirty percent of the councils or deputies of the country. The popular initiative shall be executed by the Congress, in accordance with the provisions in Article 163 with respect to bills that have been the subject of a declaration of urgency.

The proposing citizens shall have the right to designate a spokesman who shall be heard by the Houses at all stages of the proceedings.

The Constitutional Court, the Judicial Governing Council, the Supreme Court of Justice, the Council of State, the National Election Commission, the General Prosecutor of the Nation, or the Controller General of the Republic have the right to introduce bills in subject areas related to their functions.

No bill shall become law without meeting the following requirements:

Being published officially by Congress before being sent to the respective committee.

Being approved at the first reading in the appropriate permanent committee of each House. The rules of procedure of Congress shall determine the cases in which the first reading shall be held in a joint session of the permanent committees of both Houses.

Being approved in each House at the second reading.

Securing the approval of the government.

Every legislative bill shall refer to a single issue and any provisions or amendments not germane to it shall be inadmissible. The chairman of the appropriate committee shall reject the initiatives that are not in harmony with this principle, though his/her decisions shall be subject to appeal before the same committee. An Act which is subject to partial modification shall be published as a single text incorporating the approved amendments.

The legislative bill rejected at the initial reading may be considered by the respective House at the request of its author, a member of the House, the government, or the spokesman of its proponents in the case of a popular initiative.

Between the first and second readings, a period of no less than eight days must have elapsed, and between the approval of the bill in either House and the initiation of the debate in the other, at least 15 days must have elapsed.

During the second reading, each House may introduce amendments, additions, and omissions that it deems necessary.

In the report to the plenary House for the second reading, the committee chairman shall present all the proposals that were considered by the committee and the reasons why they were rejected.

Every draft law or draft legislative act must contain information on how it is to be dealt with by the respective committee competent to discuss it, and must proceed accordingly.

No bill shall be put to a vote in a session different from the one that had been previously announced. The announcement that a bill shall be put to a vote shall be made by the President of each House or committee in a session different from the one in which the vote takes place.

When differences occur in the Houses with respect to a bill, they form conciliation committees composed of an equal number of Senators and Representatives which try in joint sessions to produce a compromise text and, failing that, decide by majority.

After having been published at least one day in advance, the adopted text is submitted for discussion and approval by each House in plenary session. If following the repetition of the second reading the differences persist, the bill shall be considered as having been defeated.

Legislative bills which failed to be passed in one legislative term and which shall have been debated once in either House shall continue their course in the subsequent term in whatever state they may be. No bill may be considered in more than two legislative terms.

The President of the Republic may solicit the urgent passage of any legislative bill. In such a case, the respective House shall take a decision on the matter within a 30-day limit. Even within this deadline, a declaration of urgency may be reiterated at all constitutional stages of the bill. Should the President insist on the urgency, the bill shall have priority in the day’s agenda excluding the consideration of any other matter until the appropriate House or committee reaches a decision about it.

If the legislative bill to which the message of urgency refers is under study by a permanent committee, the committee, at the request of the government, shall deliberate jointly with the corresponding committee of the other House in order to complete the first reading.

The Congress shall give priority to the passage of legislative bills that approve treaties involving human rights and which may be submitted for consideration by the government.

Once a legislative bill is approved by both Houses, it shall be transmitted to the government for its approval. Should the government see no objections, it shall approve the bill’s promulgation as law; if it objects to it, the bill shall be returned to the House in which it originated.

The government has a six-day deadline to return with its objections any bill that does not include more than 20 articles; 10 days should the bill include 21 to 50 articles; and up to 20 days should there be over 50 articles.

If the prescribed delay expires without the government having returned the bill with its objections, the President shall approve and promulgate it. If the Houses should begin a recess within the stated deadlines, the President shall be obliged to publish the approved or disapproved bills within the above-mentioned deadlines.

The bill to which the government objects totally or in part shall be returned to the Houses for a second debate.

The President shall sign without being able to present objections the bill which, after reconsideration, is approved by the absolute majority of both Houses.

Excepted is the case in which the bill has been opposed as unconstitutional. In such an event, should the Houses insist, the bill shall be sent to the Constitutional Court so that the latter, within the six (6) following days, may decide about its constitutionality. The decision of the Court obliges the President to approve the statute. If the Court declares the bill unconstitutional, it shall be filed away.

If the Court decides that the bill is unconstitutional in part, it shall so indicate to the House where the bill originated so that, once the minister in charge has been heard, the House may redraft the bill and integrate the provisions concerned in terms consonant with the ruling of the Court. Once this is done, the House shall transmit the bill to the Court for its definitive ruling.

If the President fails to fulfill his/her duty to approve the bills within the deadlines and according to the conditions established by the Constitution, the President of Congress shall approve and promulgate them.

The title of an Act shall faithfully reflect its contents, and the following formula shall precede the text: “The Congress of Colombia decrees.”

A group of citizens corresponding to one-tenth of the electoral rolls may request from the electoral organization the holding of a referendum for the repeal of a law.

This law shall be repealed if half plus one of the voters who participate in the referendum so decide as long as a quarter of the citizens making up the electoral rolls participate in said referendum.

There can be no referendum with respect to laws approving international treaties or the budget or laws relating to fiscal or tax matters.