Student Congress is an event that models the legislative process in America. The students write legislation either bills (proposed laws) or resolutions (position statements) and try to solve the problems of the country. The students will then debate the legislation and vote as to whether the legislation should pass.
Each school submits legislation for competition, and competitors will receive the docket of legislation a week before the tournament. Students will then research and prepare speeches in affirmation or negative of the legislation. Students will use parliamentary procedure to meet about the legislation to debate and vote on the topics. Students who are the author of a piece of legislation will write an authorship speech which is 3 minutes. That student will the be questioned by the competitors for 2 minutes, and following this will be a speech in negation of the legislation and then a speech in affirmation. The speeches will continue to alternate between negation and affirmation until debate on the topic has been exhausted and someone opts to end debate by calling the previous question. Please direct student congress questions to our Second Vice President, Linda Dolan. |