On Tuesday, the Metea government classes held their annual Mock Congress simulation. The activity, which is a requirement for all government classes, involves a variety of steps to resemble the real process as much as possible.
The process of the Congress started with the government mock elections when all Metea students had the opportunity to vote on this year’s Speaker of the House, Riley Gallagher, and President, Kayra Liceoglu.
Students initially drafted bills in pairs. After selecting a topic, they had to do extensive research to find evidence to support their cause. Then, students wrote a professional outline for the bill and presented it to their classes.
Each government class chose two bills to send to Gallagher. From there, he selected eight bills to debate during the Mock Congress.
“I would introduce a bill, then everyone would ask questions,” Gallagher said. “We would have a vote whether to pass it and then [Liceoglu] would either sign it or veto it.”
AP Government teacher Susan Fuhrer talked about the success of the simulation.
“We had a respectful, good debate, [with] good questions,” Fuhrer said.
Overall, five of the eight bills were passed, and the Congress ended with Liceoglu having the opportunity to veto and sign bills. Liceoglu wrote a note to bill authors, explaining why their bill wasn’t passed, if necessary.
“I think it went really well,” Gallagher said. “We were able to get a bunch of bills passed.”
The Mock Congress is intended to simulate the real Congressional process. It teaches students how the legislative branch works and how the United States Congress turns a bill into a law.
“We try to really do a real simulation so that you can actually see the whole legislative process,” Fuhrer said. “Kind of like a general election.”
Students are encouraged to ask the writers questions and debate about the bill.
(Struan Somerville)
“I think everyone who actually did participate did a good job [and] had a good time,” Gallagher said.
The Mock Congress ended up being a great learning experience for all of the government students. There’s a lot of work that goes into the process of making this event come together and be as realistic as possible.
“It’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work for the teachers to put the whole thing together, but we love doing it,” Fuhrer said. “I was really pleased with how everything turned out.”
