Cortes Generales

The Cortes Generales is Spain's national Parliament, composed of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate. Article 66 of the Constitution assigns it legislative power, approval of the state budget and control of government action. These functions belong to a bicameral institution whose two chambers have distinct constitutional roles.

Each chamber has its own standing committee to preserve specified parliamentary powers when it is not meeting or has been dissolved. Those committees continue until the new chambers assemble. This provides institutional continuity without transferring every power of Parliament to a smaller body. The distinction is especially relevant to government decree-laws: the constitutional validation procedure belongs to Congress, including its standing committee during dissolution. A reference to the Cortes must therefore be read more broadly than a reference to Congress or its committee.