Model U.S. Senate
The purpose of this project was to understand the process the Senate goes through in order to work appropriately, while focusing on how a bill becomes a law. We began this process by researching the political processes of our Senate and how they’ve worked in the past, as well as studying how laws come to be. We were then broken up into our Model Senate roles. Each person represented a senator who currently sits in the Senate committee, and conducted the duties of that senator while our class debated the issue of climate change and the fiscal cliff. After we were named our senators, we researched their platforms as well as their political parties.
I represented finance committee chairman Orrin Hatch, a republican from Utah, who runs the finance subcommittee. Since I was part of the executive team of the Senate, I didn’t have to write legislation for a bill my senator would have liked to become a law. Instead, I created the schedule for when a selected bill written by my classmates would be debated in our exhibition. If you’re thinking this job sounds simple, you are definitely incorrect. The schedule I created has to match up with the other subcommittee, as well as with the main Senate committee. Furthermore, it has to include very specific steps that would mirror an actual subcommittee debate, including the same vocabulary. This was far more easily said than done. We were required to follow the parliamentary procedure, meaning I had to read over all of the points and motions the floor has to make, and know when I should motion for them to make them. The schedule is shown below.
Along with that, I conducted additional research so I could accurately represent my party, and I was also required to make a speech during the exhibition regarding the proposed amendments to the chosen financial bill. The speech writing was not particularly difficult, but since we weren’t aware of what amendments would pass or not until the middle of the exhibition, it required me to think ahead and think on my feet to create a speech that would be relevant and powerful. My general speech is shown below, but is not the exact one I spoke during the exhibition, for the reasons previously listed.
I have also attached the bill that was being debated in my committee in case you would like to see how my speech relates.
I represented finance committee chairman Orrin Hatch, a republican from Utah, who runs the finance subcommittee. Since I was part of the executive team of the Senate, I didn’t have to write legislation for a bill my senator would have liked to become a law. Instead, I created the schedule for when a selected bill written by my classmates would be debated in our exhibition. If you’re thinking this job sounds simple, you are definitely incorrect. The schedule I created has to match up with the other subcommittee, as well as with the main Senate committee. Furthermore, it has to include very specific steps that would mirror an actual subcommittee debate, including the same vocabulary. This was far more easily said than done. We were required to follow the parliamentary procedure, meaning I had to read over all of the points and motions the floor has to make, and know when I should motion for them to make them. The schedule is shown below.
Along with that, I conducted additional research so I could accurately represent my party, and I was also required to make a speech during the exhibition regarding the proposed amendments to the chosen financial bill. The speech writing was not particularly difficult, but since we weren’t aware of what amendments would pass or not until the middle of the exhibition, it required me to think ahead and think on my feet to create a speech that would be relevant and powerful. My general speech is shown below, but is not the exact one I spoke during the exhibition, for the reasons previously listed.
I have also attached the bill that was being debated in my committee in case you would like to see how my speech relates.