A parliamentary delegation (or congressional delegation, also CODEL or codel, in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
) is an official visit abroad by a
member or members of a
legislature
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...
.
To schedule a parliamentary delegation, a member must apply to the relevant
committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
chair, who will contact the appropriate
agency to request funds and support for the trip. Various parliaments and legislatures maintain formal or informal groupings, such as
congressional caucus
A congressional caucus is a group of members of the United States Congress that meet to pursue common legislative objectives. Formally, caucuses are formed as congressional member organizations (CMOs) through the United States House of Represent ...
es and
all-party parliamentary group
An all-party parliamentary group (APPG) is a grouping in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that is composed of members of parliament from all political parties, but have no official status within Parliament.
Description and functions
All-party ...
s, which maintain regular delegations to and from select countries; the European Parliament also maintains a formal delegation system for regular meetings with national and multinational parliaments.
Parliamentary delegations are formed for purposes of solidarity, negotiations, research, and investigation, but they are sometimes a source of controversy and criticism, when seen as ''junkets''.
[Scott Wong]
Junket? Maybe not, but Dems attack GOP trips
(January 13, 2012). ''Politico''.
In the United States
A congressional delegation ''abroad'' is not the same as the congressional delegation ''of a state'' (or a legislative delegation from a county to a state legislature), which is the entire body of current members elected to both houses of Congress from a specific state.
See also
*
Paradiplomacy Paradiplomacy is the involvement of non-central governments in international relations. The phenomenon includes a variety of pratices, from town twinning to transational networking, decentralized cooperation, and advocacy in international summits. ...
References
External links
Entryin
C-SPAN Congressional Glossary
Terminology of the United States Congress
International relations
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