Youth in Government/State Assembly

Youth in Government is a mock-government club sponsored by the YMCA’s of the US. In Florida, every year, there is a State Assembly- a 3-day trip to the State Capitol where middle and high schoolers debate court cases and bills. I’ve been in my local YMCA’s YIG program for 2 years now. When you join YIG, there are two options- judicial or legislative. The judicial branch of YIG debates court cases and has to pick a side on a court case and prepare for it. The legislative branch of YIG writes bills and then debates them in the Capitol. Last year, I joined YIG without really knowing what it was, or how I would fit into it. Initially, I dreaded going to the meetings because I didn’t know anybody, and writing a bill is just as hard as it seems. I chose the legislative branch to work on my own, and to create a policy which interested me. My freshman year of YIG, I chose to do my bill topic on the mentally ill. My bill idea was to fund and create Clubhouses, or places in the county where the mentally ill could seek refuge and have a safe home off the streets. In theory, this idea is good. However, my bill was shot down because my funding wasn’t specific or good enough, and there were too many holes in my bill for it to be passed. At State Assembly (and politics in general), the high schoolers there focus on the negatives or holes in your bill and then use that against you to prove why everyone else should not vote for your bill. This may seem cruel, but that is how State Assembly runs. Typically, only a handful of bills pass all the way through to the governor. Last year, only one bill made it all the way through.

Here is the process used at State Assembly to debate and weed out the weaker bills:

Day 1 of State Assembly:

1. The bus leaves at 6:45 in the morning, and it’s around 6 or 7 hours to Tallahassee. We stop for lunch along the way.
2. Arrive at the hotel, check-in, and then take the bus to a location (last year it was a church) where we can get ahead on debating bills.
3. First Committee:
   1. First Committee is the first hoop bills have to jump through. The high schoolers attending State Assembly are split up into groups of around 10. 
   2. Each bill is presented here.
      1. The bill author(s) stand up, and do a one-minute opening statement, where they tell you about their bill and why it is important to communities in Florida. Then there is a round of NDTQ’s (non-debatable, technical questions). The answer to these questions must be a yes, no, or a number.
      2. Then there is a closing statement by the bill author.
      3. Finally, each bill gets voted on on a scale of 1-5. There are 4 criteria (I forget them😭) and each criteria gets ranked 1-5. The numbers are totaled, and if your bill is ranked low enough, it passes.
4. Second Committee:
   1. The bills that are voted low enough to make it into Second Committee are announced. The groups for Second Committee are larger- probably around 20 or 25 students.
   2. Each bill author has an opening statement, then there is a round of NDTQ’s, then there is a con-pro-con sandwich round of debate, then a closing statement.
      1. The con-pro-con debate is highly important in State Assembly. Any delegate can speak against or for the bill, and here is where bills get ripped apart and where delegates convince other people to not vote for a bill/to vote for a bill.
      2. After Second Committee, everyone is released to head back to the hotel. By this point, you’re exhausted and either happy that your bill passed, or upset that it didn’t.
5. Go back to the hotel, shower, and crash. Or stay up till one am talking and painting nails with your roommates…

Day 2 of State Assembly:

1. Wake up and head to breakfast. Get dressed in business casual and go to the State Capitol.
2. Chambers is the term used to describe when all the high school delegates cluster into one of the State Capitol’s rooms, and spend the entire day debating bills.
   1. Not all the bills that make it to Chambers are heard, as there is only so much time. There is a bill docket which states the order in which the bills will be heard. You want your bill to be at the top of the docket so that you can present your bill.
      1. The bills in Chambers have an opening statement, a round of NDTQ’s, and then a con-pro-con-pro-con sandwich debate. Then a closing statement by the bill author.
      2. Each bill probably takes around 20-30 minutes to hear and vote on. In Chambers, we vote by standing up and saying -aye if you want the bill to pass, or -nay if you want it to die.
      3. The bills that pass one house of Chambers must get sponsored by a delegate in the other house and then your bill must get passed by the other house in order to get it to the Cabinet.
      4. The Cabinet is a group of executive officials that scan through all the bills that have passed all the way through both houses of Congress. They check for technical errors and critique the layout and execution of your bill.
      5. The bills that make it through Cabinet are then reviewed by the Governor. The governor can either veto or sign off on the bill.
3. Chambers takes up the majority of the day. We stop for lunch, and then resume until 5. 
4. At 6:45, everyone heads to Tallahassee’s Antique Car Museum for the Governor’s Bash. There is a buffet and everyone hangs out and eats together, and then we go see all the cars. All the candidates for Governor also do their speeches.
5. Then, everyone heads back to the hotel for the second and final night in Tallahassee.

Day 3 of State Assembly:

1. Breakfast and head to the Capitol for the morning session.
2. All the candidates running for positions do the speeches and everyone votes.
3. Lunch break and then everyone heads to the church where there is a closing ceremony.
4. The election winners are announced and everyone says goodbye and then heads immediately to the bus!
5. The drive back is long- we got back at 1 am last year. I remember talking to people and doing pictionary even though it was late at night. There were also people sleeping on the bus.

That’s State Assembly! It looks overwhelming and confusing, and it is, in a sense. But once I went and experienced it for the first time, I understood everything and I hope this helped you.