Tournament Prep Congress

Congressional Debate, also known as Student Congress is the most formal speech and debate event. In this event, students act as United States Congresswomen/men and give speeches on mock legislation. They perform as if they are in the Senate or House of Representatives and they represent the constituents who elected them. Each tournament will have a unique “docket” or collection of bills and resolutions that are submitted by the programs going to that competition. Competitors are expected to prepare arguments for both sides of all of the debate topics, and argue whether each piece of legislation should be passed into law. Students get the topics 2-6 weeks ahead of time and must find research to back their arguments.

There are a few differences between Congress and the other debate events like LD or PF.
1. Congress debaters are in a round of 10-24 students at a time whereas LD has 2 students per room and PF has 4.
2. Once Congress students are assigned to their “chambers” or rooms, they will continue competing against those same students in all the prelims. But LD and PF have new opponents each round.
3. That’s because at a tournament, LD and PF competitors will debate that one topic for the competition, but in congress, the topics change each round.
4. While LD and PF debaters are trying to get the “win” over their opponent”, Congressional Debaters are trying to get the “1″ or 1st place in the round. The top 8 students are ranked by the judges, and then everyone else gets a 9.
5. While LD and PF topics are set by the National Speech and Debate Association, and change every 1-2 months, Congress topics are set by the tournament themselves (based on student submissions), and are different for each individual tournament even if they’re during the same month.

Congress is arguably the truest form of speech and debate because students must have the poise and spontaneity found in the limited preparation speaking events, they must use acting skills like in the interpretation events, have strong delivery skills like in the platform/public address events, and have the argumentation + research of a typical debate event.

Come work with Mr. Feldman and see what Congress has to offer!