December 10-

Today we visited the Moroccan Parliament.  The current term of the Moroccan House of Representatives Legislature begun in 2011 and will end in this coming year, 2016.  This current elected governing parliamentary body since Morocco’s first constitution (in 1962) and independence from France is the 9^th legislature.  Since the early years of the 1900s, the Moroccan government had made great strides in reforming the government and constitution and improving the representation of Moroccan citizens in the government.  The increased representation was a result from creating a bicameral legislator and adding more Representative seats to the Parliament.  The bicameral legislator consists of the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors.  The current number of members in the House of Representatives is 395 and the current number of members in the House of Councilors is 120.  On our visit to the Parliament, we also learned the bodies that make of the House of Representatives: President, Bureau, Group and parliamentary groups, Presidents’ Conference, Parliamentary committees, and Secretary General’s office.  The Parliamentary committees comprises of eight committees: Committee of Foreign Affairs, National Defense, Islamic Affairs, and Moroccans living abroad; Committee of interior, local committees, housing, and urban policies; Committee of justice, legislation, and human rights; Committee of finance and economic development; Committee of social sectors; Committee of productive sectors; Committee of infrastructure, energy, minerals, and environment; and Committee of Education, Culture, and Communication.  I thought that this was particularly interesting because in the House of Representatives (and the Senate) in the United States, there are committees for specific issues only; multiple issues are usual not grouped together into a single committee.  For example, in the United States the Committee of Finance and the Committee of Economic Development are two completely separate committees.  I thought the visit to the Moroccan House of Representatives was very interesting because it is important to see how other country’s governments outside your own is structured and improved over time to modernize.  I also think that it is important to observe how governments’ from other countries operate and how laws and legislation are passed.