This project, the model senate project, was constructed around immitating real congressional sessions in order to help us understand our country's political system more in depth. We began this project by first learning about our system. We studied each branch of the government in depth, then moved into the question of, "Is Congress Broken?". We were then given our roles. Some of us were simply senators, and others were given more responsible roles such as: executive, whip, chair, expert, and lobbyist. We were each assigned to certain committees; Judiciary, Climate Change, and College Debt. I was given the role of Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and I was a member of the Judiciary committee. As a senator I wrote legislation on the topic of immigration. My bill was unfortunately not chosen for the actual docket, so I decided to propose an amendment to the chosen bill. I added an increase in T and U visa distribution as well as an increase in their time. My amendment was voted on and passed so it was added to the bill for the meeting. We had two committee meetings on the first couple of days where we gave our speeches, proposed amendments, and went through the process. Once we had voted on the individual bills, if they passed they went to congress. This was on friday night. We all went up to the college to vote once and for all on our proposed bills. At this point we had the immigration bill and college debt bill. The senators voted and passed the immigration bill, but our president decided to veto it. College debt went differently however, it didn't have enough votes to pass out of congress, so our president didn't need to take any actions. Overall, I learned so much about our political system throughout this project, understand how congress could be broken, and feel that I now can make more educated decisions based on political issues. |
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