Ideas for Bills

Begin the Bill to law process. Check any of the sites below to get an idea for your own piece of legislation


1.Bills by subject
2. controversial topics
3. Argument essay topics

For ideas about the format of writing a bill and examples check out :Mock Congress Bill Template.

Senate Committees

Senate Committees

Go to the Senate Committees Homepage
Read the About the Committee System Section.
Go back to the homepage
Pick 1 committee that sounds interesting to you or a committee that you may want your bill to be in.
Create a powerpoint that explains the following:
1. Jurisdiction of the committee (what areas are under its responsibility)
2. Who is the chairman?
3. Describe two bills that are currently in committee

Senate

Test on Friday or Monday review on quizlet 

Senate Research

Your objective today is to research a current US Senator who is up for reelection and find the following information:
Go to senate.gov for list of all current US Senators
1. What state? and party?
2. List 5 things you think are important to know about the Senator's biography.
3. How many terms has the Senator served?
4. On what committees does the Senator serve?
5. Describe the current polling data of the election.
a. Find a current political advertisement  in favor of your candidate
b. Find one against him/her . describe
5. Go to Thomas.gov find one piece of legislation that the Senator sponsored or co-sponsored. Find one that makes sense to you and summarized into a few sentences what the bill does.

8. Finally pick an issue that your Senator feels passionately about and write a 30 sec sound bite, to be delivered in class, writing as if you are that Senator. The sound bite should be written as if your senator is answering a question from a reporter, so give the question then give your 30 sec answer.

Today's lesson focus is on interest groups or lobby groups. By the end of class you will know what they are, how they operated and be able to identify the particulars of their influence.
Go to www.opensecrets.org
click on lobbying on the left hand side of the page.Read
click on ranked sectors. Read and look at all the different sectors. Click around.
click on top spenders. Read and look around.
post a one paragraph comment on the blog explaining one specific interest group and their influence/ interest on a particular bill.

Key terms

Key terms

Look up the Bill of Rights, read through the 1st 10 amendments to the constitution. Post a one paragraph comment on your thoughts about what they mean& how the are applied today

Define Judicial Review- Google "judicial review ____ amendment" and find an article that discusses how the courts are currently ruling on a particular constitutional issue regarding a specific amendment, read it and write a 1-2 paragraph summary / opinion .