Student Congress

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Template:Cleanup-date Student Congress (also Congressional Debate) is a form of high school debate. Many State Forensic Associations offer Student Congress, as well as the National Forensic League and National Catholic Forensic League. The current NFL champion is Eva Lam, from Rufus King High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

In Student Congress, high school students imitate the United States Congress by debating bills and resolutions. Each school is allowed to submit a set of 'legislation' that students are able to haggle on to a Congressional docket for further debate. This is usually done in a "docket committee," and informal group of leaders from each school in the chamber.

Procedure

Typically, Student Congress is governed by the rules in Robert's Rules of Order. Tournaments will publish a list of bills and resolutions before it occurs. This is done so that the speakers may research the topics and prepare material to use during the delivery of an affirming or negating speech, although performing a speech entirely prepared and memorized before the tournament ("Canned") is highly discouraged, as speeches should be dynamic and responsive to the course of the debate. In other regions of the country, student congresspeople write their own legislation, bring it to the round, then meet briefly at the beginning of the session to set the docket.

As the California High School Speech Association and many other associations practice the event, the bill(s) to be debated in each round is/are announced before the tournament begins and the speakers are divided into separate Houses of roughly fifteen to separately debate the bills upon arrival. Each House has a Presiding Officer to enforce parliamentary procedure and record each speaker's number of questions and attempts to speak. The Parliamentarian of the chamber ranks the speakers and stays in the chamber for the entire course of the session. Also present are typically one, two, or three judges who rank the speakers on ballots and who generally switch houses after each piece of legislation. The round begins with a motion to open the Chamber and then a motion to begin debate on the posted bill, or to choose one of multiple bills to begin with if more than one are posted. The bill is typically formally read ("authored") and the Presiding Officer announces that a speech in authorship/representation of the bill is now in order. The representative that wrote the bill or a sponsor must give an introductory speech that affirms the passing of said legislation. Then the Presiding Officer shall call for a speech in opposition.

At this point, the speakers must compete for floor time. This process varies greatly by region and by level of competition, and the Presiding Officer should announce his/her selection process at the beginning of the session. Often at national levels, the Presiding Officer will consider fastest standing, longest standing, and a process of geography (considering separately the four quadrants of the chamber). In some Midwest regions, speakers chosen by location, for instance, by front-to-back, left-to-right. The speaker standing closest to the front-left in that case would have the opportunity to speak first. In the following session, the seating order is reversed. Another process that is used: In the first preliminary round, as well as the semi-final and final rounds, each speaker is issued a set of priority cards, typically one through five or one through six depending on the number of rounds and bills. Speakers wishing to speak on the side of the bill (Proponency or Opponency) currently in order hold up their lowest number priority card to indicate the desire to speak. Lower numbers have priority over higher numbers, and in case of tied numbers, priority is given to the speaker who has unsuccessfully attempted to speak the most times or asked the most questions. In cases of an absolute tie, speakers are asked to yield or to participate in a coin toss or quick game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. The speaker who wins the floor surrenders their lowest number priority card to the Presiding Officer. A speaker who has exhaused the supply of priority cards may only speak if no other speakers contest said speaker for the floor.

Once the floor is awarded to a speaker, a three minute maximum speech is given, the remainder of the time is yeilded to questioning. The first speech is always in the Authorship of the bill, and alternated with a speech in the Opponency of the bill, followed by a speech in proponency. It is typical but not required for a speaker to begin with a formal address to the House ("At the leisure of the Judges, the Parlimentarian, and the Presiding Officer") After completing the speech, the speaker usually indicates its end with a variant of "I yield the remainder of my time to questioning." At this point, the House has two minutes (if authorship) to ask questions of the speaker with the floor. If the speech was not an authorship than the remainder of the speech time is used for questioning. However, if there is negiable time for questioning, than senators wishing to question the speaker may motion to add time (in 30 second incruments). The Presiding Officer establishes a method by which speakers shall indicate desire to ask a question (typically raising of the hand or standing) and then recognizes speakers based on the number of questions asked (speakers with fewer questions have first opportunity to ask a question.) or geography. Typically, questions will attempt to expose faults in the speech just given, but often speakers planning to speak or having spoken on the same side of the bill as the Senator currently holding the floor will ask him or her to agree with a statement pertaining to the relevant side of the argument ("Senator, do you agree that...") Questions, and their respective answers, are to be short and to the point, as delays will unfairly cut into other speakers' question time. However, asking questions to suggest the speaker to make a point is against NFL rules.

A pair of one Proponency and one Opponency speech in that order is considered a cycle. In between cycles, time is given for speakers to introduce motions onto the floor. In most tournaments, the Presiding Officer has a large amount of discretion to exercise over whether or not to rule motions in order, but at high level competitions, such as CHSSA State Qualifiers, the Presiding Officer is meant to be a strict procedurist; that is, the P.O. should simply follow through with any motions introduced. Common motions include Points of Personal Privilege, (typically used to allow a speaker to adjust something for personal comfort,) Motions to Table the Current Question, (Used when multiple bills are up for debate in a given round) and Motions to Call the Previous Question (End debate on the current bill and call a vote on the bill itself.) Note that because a Motion to Call the Previous Question ends the debate immediately if passed, it is typically considered bad form to make such a motion before all speakers have had time on the floor. Some tournaments establish a minimum time before the Previous Question can be called, and when possible, Judges and Presiding Officers often rule the Previous Question out of order before all speakers have had a chance at the floor. If the topic is exhausted, but some senators still wish to speak than a senator can make a motion to table the resolution or bill. This simply means that the resolution will be put aside and debated again at a later period.

After the Previous Question has been called and the bill or bills voted on, the Presiding Officer announces whether or not a two-thirds vote has been reached, which is required to pass any bill. This is merely a formality, as well as in some states an explicit signal of the end of the round. The Presiding Officer will than entertain Motions to adjorn or recess, which is seconded and passed. The speakers exit, and the judges rank the speakers in order of preference based on criteria such as Reasoning, Evidence, Performance, and Clash.

Frequently Used Parlimentary Motions

Main Motion- To introduce business (begin a session)- second required- majority
Note: If the Rules of the Session are open, then Main Motion may be implied, or automatic.

Fix Time for reassembling- To arrange time of next meeting- second required- majority
Adjourn- To dismiss meeting- second required-majority
Recess- To dismiss for a specific amount of time- second required- majority
Rise to a Question of Personal Privilege- to make a personal request- second not required- decision of chair
Point of Order/Point of information- To correct a parliamentary error, ask a question to clarify a procedure- second not required- decision of chair
Call for a roll call vote- to verify voice vote- second required- 1/5
Leave to modify or withdraw a motion- to modify or withdraw motion- second not required- majority
suspend the rules- to take action against rules (such as add an additional minute of questioning)-second required- 2/3
take from the table- consider a tabled legislation-second required- majority
Lay on the table- to defer action- second required- majority
Previous Question- to force immediate voting procedure- second required- 2/3

Student Congress tournaments

In the past decade, Student Congress has spread widely across the debate community. The first major tournament outside of NFL and NCFL nationals to host Student Congress was the Harvard University tournament, traditionally held near President's Day weekend in February. Other major tournaments which host congress competitions include The University of Florida Blue Key, Wake Forest Early Bird, Yale, Princeton, The Glenbrooks (Chicago), and Stanford. In addition, Congress is now one of the official events at the debate Tournament of Champions, hosted by the University of Kentucky. Students who achieve a high level of competitive success at other national tournaments qualify to compete at the TOC, which brings together some of the best congresspersons from across the nation.