ld, and there is a probability of one
such session each year, ordinarily in March. The powers assigned the
chambers to be exercised in their concurrent capacities may be
classified variously. The more important are: (1) the enactment of
laws and ordinances upon the organization and election of federal
authorities and upon all subjects which by the constitution are placed
within the federal competence; (2) the conduct of foreign relations,
particularly the concluding of treaties and alliances with foreign
powers, the supervision of conventions entered into by the cantons (in
the event that the Federal Council, or any canton, protests against
such cantonal arrangements), the declaring of war and the concluding
of peace, and the taking of measures for the safety, independence, and
neutrality of the Confederation; (3) the control of the federal army;
(4) the adoption of the annual budget, the authorizing of federal
loans, and the auditing of public accounts; (5) the taking of measures
for the enforcement of the provisions of the federal constitution, for
the carrying out of the guaranty of the cantonal constitutions, for
the fulfillment of federal obligations, and for the supervision of the
federal administration and of the federal courts; and (6) the revision
of the federal constitution.[631] It will be perceived that the powers
exercised by the chambers are principally legislative, but also in no
small degree executive and judicial; that, as has already been
emphasized, the two councils comprise the real directive agency of the
Confederation.

[Footnote 631: Art. 85, Secs. 1-14. Dodd, Modern
Constitutions, II., 278-279.]

*474. The Assembly's Procedure.*--Federal laws, decrees, and resolutions
are passed only by agreement of the two councils. Any measure may
originate in either house and may be introduced by any member. There
are committees upon various subjects, but bills are referred to them
only by special vote. Committee members are chosen by the chamber directly
or by the chamber's "bureau," as the chamber itself may determine. In
each house a majority constitutes a quorum for the transaction of
business, and measures are passed by a simple majority. Sittings, (p. 430)
as a rule, are public. It is expressly forbidden that members shall
receive from their constituents, or from the cantonal governments,
instructions respecting the manner in which they shall vote.[632]