Modle Senate Project
The modle senate project was designed to give us a first hand look at how the government works, specifically the senate. We first studied the three branches of govenment, the voting process and how laws are made. Next we chose roles to play in the modle senate like lobbyist, experts, committee members, minority and majority whip, ect. I was a committee member playing the role of James Lankford. There were three different committees on topics we felt were most pressing in the US today they were immigration, climate change and college debt. I was assigned to the immigration committee and had to write an immigration reform bill from the perspective of my senator, a very conservative republican from Oklahoma. My fellow committee members also wrote bills and the best was chosen. We had a three day exhibition for the project, the first two days we were in committee, the committee members gave speaches, ammended the bill and and tried to pass a bi-partasan bill. Our committee on climate change passed the bill and the college debt committee did as well so for the final day of exhibition we took the bills to the senate floor. Much like the real senate, in the end, we did not pass any bills, the college debt bill was not passed and our immigration bill ended up being overriden by a prsidential vetoe. Through this project I have learned a lot about the three branches of govenment and how our laws are passed but the biggest thing I learned is that congress is not broken, it is the polarized ideals that the two parties have that makes it so hard for congress to get anything done.