Bill Becomes a Law in our Class

(EVERYONE GETS THIS SHEET AND THE NEXT)

Process:
1. Split into House of Representatives and Senate
2.

3.

4.
5.

6.
7.

Introduce the Bill:

1. Hear from One Supporter
2. Hear from One Opposition
Debate the Bill: (10 minutes)
-Everyone has a role
-Everyone needs to speak before debate is over! I will be checking
Revise the Bill:
-Only Speaker/Majority Leader can change the bill based on debate
Add Amendments:
Each of you can add any bill you would like, BUT each Amendment Needs
Three Supporters.
Vote on the Bill
-If the bill gets a majority in support, it goes to the President
Bill Goes to President
-President can SIGN the bill or VETO

Rules:
1. Raise hands to speak and get acknowledgement from Speaker
2. Everyone Needs to Speak During Debate
3. You only get one chance to make a comment unless everyone has spoken
4. If you dont participate or if you act in a way that distracts others, you
will get a 0 for classwork today
Roles:
-Representatives and Senators
-Speaker of the House/ Senate Majority Leader
-Supporter
-Opposition
-Democrats
-Republicans
-President

The Bill:

The minimum wage across the United

States should be raised to from $7.25
an hour to $10 an hour.

Revision:
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Amendments:

Vote Tally:

For: ______ Against: ______

Abstain (Didnt vote): _____

Roles

Speaker of the House:

You lead the conversation and call on Representatives to Speak. You run the
entire conversation and decide when to vote.
Notes for Speaker
1. Hear from Supporter First - Then Opposer2. Then Begin Debate (Raise Hands to Hear from People). Everyone Must
Speak.
3. Revise the Bill; You can change the words
4. Ask for Amendments: Hear the Amendment and ask if there are three people
who support it. If not, the Amendment will fail. Amendments can be removed
by a majority vote if you decide to call for the vote.
5. Vote on the Bill

Supporter: Bob Brady

Raising the minimum wage would raise the incomes of 28
million Americans. Women would particularly benefit
because they tend to work for lower wages than men.
The bulk of research examining hundreds of studies of
minimum wage increases at the state and local levels
finds that raising the minimum wage boosts incomes for
low-paid workers without reducing overall employment or
job growth to any significant degree.

Opposition: Business Owner:

This bill would eliminate jobs. Ordering businesses to pay every worker
more will make us hire fewer of them. We might consider replacing more
workers with robots or computers, or raise our prices.
It is estimated that a minimum wage of $10 would reduce total
employment by about 500,000 workers. It would reduce the incentive for
low-wage workers to get an education and move up to a higher-paying
job.
Finally, younger, less educated people lose jobs the most.

Other Representative: AMENDER

Wait till it is time to amend the bill (step 5). You would like
to amend the bill to add a law that says
No one under the age of 30 should be allowed to own a gun.
This seems random, but you think its an important law to add. You are trying to
sneak this law into the Minimum wage law.

Senate Majority Leader:

You lead the conversation and call on Representatives to Speak. You run the
entire conversation and decide when to vote.
Notes for Majority Leader
1. Hear from Supporter First - Then Opposer2. Then Begin Debate (Raise Hands to Hear from People). Everyone Must
Speak.
3. Revise the Bill; You can change the words
4. Ask for Amendments: Hear the Amendment and ask if there are three people
who support it. If not, the Amendment will fail. Amendments can be removed
by a majority vote if you decide to call for the vote.
5. Vote on the Bill

Supporter:
Raising the minimum wage would raise the incomes of 28
million Americans. Women would particularly benefit
because they tend to work for lower wages than men.
The bulk of research examining hundreds of studies of
minimum wage increases at the state and local levels
finds that raising the minimum wage boosts incomes for
low-paid workers without reducing overall employment or
job growth to any significant degree.

Opposition: Business Owner:

This bill would eliminate jobs. Ordering businesses to pay every worker
more will make us hire fewer of them. We might consider replacing more
workers with robots or computers, or raise our prices.
It is estimated that a minimum wage of $10 would reduce total
employment by about 500,000 workers. It would reduce the incentive for
low-wage workers to get an education and move up to a higher-paying
job.
Finally, younger, less educated people lose jobs the most.

Other Representative: AMENDER

Wait till it is time to amend the bill (step 5). You would
like to amend the bill to add a law that says..

Every student must pass their Final Exams

(Keystone Exams) in order to pass high
school, otherwise the Federal Government
wont give money to School Districts)
This seems random, but you think its an important law to add. You are trying to
sneak this law into the Minimum wage law.

Four other roles (every student gets one)

Moderate Democrat
You are in support of raising the minimum wage to $10 an
hour.

Far-left Democrat
You are enthusiastically in support of raising the minimum
wage to $10 or even $15 an hour

Moderate Republican
You are opposed to raising the minimum wage, unless by a
very small amount

Far-right Republican
You are completely opposed to any raising of the minimum
wage. You would prefer it if there were no minimum wage at all.