Model Senate
With the United States most historic election swirling around us, we embarked on the epic task of understanding how our government works. Beginning with the Supreme Court, we studied the branches of government and eventually ended with the United States Congress. Our goal was to understand the United States Congress, and specifically the Senate. Each student took on the roll of a real senator and wrote legislation based off of real world hot button topics. We studied climate change, immigration and college debt and trying to figure out realistic solutions to those problems. This project ended with three days in the Senate, two in committees amending the bills and the last day on the Senate Floor.
I took the Ranking Memeber roll of Mitch McConnell, who is the Senate Majority Leader. Sen. McConnell represents Kentucky, but is a major player in the Senate and the politics of America. From gathering votes for the Republican party to leading the Senate on the floor, I stayed busy during this exhibition. The best part of this role for me was that his politics and my politics do line up with his, so I was able to play this part to the best of my ability and get farther in depth with the legislation that I wrote and supported.
In the end, the Model Senate floor turned exciting as speeches were made, bills were passed and then vetoed and the audience laughed and cried along with us. We passed the immigration bill which was passed with overwhelming support, then promptly vetoed by President Obama. The college debt bill did not pass, simply because of the unexpected result of the Democrats not having enough votes present to sway the voting and neither side was able to win majority support. What was expected to be a quiet night ended up as a thrilling roller coaster ride, and closely mirrored the real political climate of the United States Government.
I took the Ranking Memeber roll of Mitch McConnell, who is the Senate Majority Leader. Sen. McConnell represents Kentucky, but is a major player in the Senate and the politics of America. From gathering votes for the Republican party to leading the Senate on the floor, I stayed busy during this exhibition. The best part of this role for me was that his politics and my politics do line up with his, so I was able to play this part to the best of my ability and get farther in depth with the legislation that I wrote and supported.
In the end, the Model Senate floor turned exciting as speeches were made, bills were passed and then vetoed and the audience laughed and cried along with us. We passed the immigration bill which was passed with overwhelming support, then promptly vetoed by President Obama. The college debt bill did not pass, simply because of the unexpected result of the Democrats not having enough votes present to sway the voting and neither side was able to win majority support. What was expected to be a quiet night ended up as a thrilling roller coaster ride, and closely mirrored the real political climate of the United States Government.
Legislation
The purpose of our legislation was to make it easier for law enforcement agencies to apply the law that is already on the books, specifically Title 8 Immigration Law. Title 8 has entire sections that outline in debth how our deportation policies work for illegal and legal immigrants in the United States. After extensive research, reading Title 8 and conversations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and immigration representatives we determined that our immigration system doesn't need to be fixed... it just needs to be enforced and simplified. We titled it True Enforcement of Title 8 Immigration Law... which under our current President is not at all the case.