Committee Hearings

Preparation for Committee Hearings

Now that your students are rolling with the Bill Writing process, you can begin to think about preparations for the Committee Hearings.  I'll be honest in saying that running the Committee Hearings takes a lot of work and coordination, but the day of the hearings you'll just be able to sit back and watch in awe at how impressive your students are.  I'll break down the prep into three categories:  1. Preparing the Committee Chairs  2. Preparing the students 3. Logistics. 

This House Rules for Committee Hearings  document outlines a lot of the specific procedures.  Consider providing this to all students, or including at the back of their bill packet.  At a minimum the chair and parliamentarian need this.  It outlines procedures specific to the committee hearings, including censure of representatives and removal of the chair. 

Preparing the Committee Chairs

Once your Rules Committee has chosen the Committee Chairs, you can provide them with a Welcome Letter for Chairs which lays out some of their responsibilities.  They are responsible not only for chairing the meeting, but also for choosing supporting staff for their committee (a clerk and a secretary/parliamentarian) setting the agenda (choosing the order of the bills and the amount of time allotted to each), and coordinating testimony and expert witnesses. Their training starts in the classroom through observation of you, and practice chairing your classroom.  In addition you should meet with them at least twice, once to orient them to their role, and again to conduct at least one training session where you walk through the process, provide them with an agenda template, scripts and other tips and advice. (All these documents are listed below) The work that you do in prepping the chairs will pay off, because they are the ones who set the tone for their committees and ensure that things run smoothly.  They carry the weight of the responsibility during the Committee Hearings.  

Preparing the Students

If you have been utilizing parliamentary procedure in your classroom regularly, and have emphasized respect for civil discourse, the students will largely be prepared because they will be accustomed to following the lead of the chair and engaging in respectful debate.  This Student Handout Committee Hearing Process  provides a concise summary of the structure of the Committee Hearings, which differ from in-class debates only in that they include a Bill Sponsor Speech with a question and answer period and the possibility of testimony.  These are authentic elements of a legislative committee hearing.  

You will also want to try to encourage students and psych them up for the experience.  Here is a document with  Student Advice for Committee Hearings from former students, with instructions for an activity.

The last element of preparation for the students involves reading, understanding, and developing positions on the bills in their assigned committee.  You have some time blocked off for this in class, and ideally some students will go above and beyond by doing additional research on the bills that interest them. All students should complete the Bill Review assignment for each bill in their committee, ensuring that they are sufficiently prepared to contribute to the debate, and providing an opportunity for individual accountability.   

Logistics

You've already determined the location of the Committee Hearings, and secured the necessary furniture (tables and chairs).  Aside from the physical space, the primary logistics of the Committee Hearings involve lots of paper and spreadsheets. Make sure you have a "master roster" that lists every student, teacher, class period, committee assignment, and flags the chairs and other leadership.  You can re-sort this to create committee lists, attendance and voting records, lists of who is in each committee by class period, etc.  

After the final bills and position papers/FAQ have been submitted and bills are assigned to committees, you should prepare packets for each student with copies of the bills in their committee and a copy of the bill review assignment.  For this reason you'll likely want to have each group turn in clean copies of both their bill and position paper/FAQ, and also have them available digitally as a backup in case some are missing when you are ready to make the copies. (great tasks for student TAs!) Prior to the Hearings you'll also need to copy agendas for each committee (created and submitted by the Chairs using the  Agenda Template for Committee Hearing), as well as Committee Hearing Calendar  that lists the bills in each Committee and the order in which they will be discussed.  You could have the Speaker of the House create this.

Committee Hearing To Do (Organized by Class, Chairs and Teachers)

Head Clerk

You'll want to use TA's or former students to help manage the logistics during the hearings, they should have their own table, and you can give them a title like "Head Clerks".  (*teachers can play this role, but ideally it would be a student not currently enrolled in the class).  Each Committee Clerk and Secretary are responsible for submitting attendance, vote records, amendments to the Head Clerks table where they should be organized and kept as the official record.  No other students should approach the Head Clerk table, only the Committee Clerks and Secretary.

The Head Clerk should enter attendance and votes into the Committee Hearings Vote Tracker.  The paper record is always the official record, but compiling information in real time in this spreadsheet is very helpful for the next step (getting ready for full session).  We suggest having the committee clerk fill out the paper record, and turn it in, rather than using this spreadsheet.

Committee Hearings Run of Show

To Print and Prepare 

• Central Organization

  • Placards for all students (have students write their Committee Assignment on the placard on the upper right, so it's easy to sort them)

  • Committee Hearings Vote Tracker 

  • Extra committee packets with copies of bills if students forget theirs.

  • File folders for each committee.

  • Colored paper for students with IEPS or other needs who need to leave their committee for arranged reasons.  They will place the colored sheet over their placard when they leave.  

• For Leadership in each committee

  • 2x Attendance Record  (names of each committee member, one for AM, one for PM to turn into Clerk)

  • 4-5x Official Vote Record - for Clerk one for each bill with bill title and names of every committee member, can print off of the Vote Tracker

  • 4-5x Bill Debate Tracker - (Same as attendance Record), for Secretary to keep track of participation and communicate to Chair

  • Copies of Bills with cover page (An Official Copy for Clerk to submit after vote)

  • Gavels

  • Colored Cards for clerk to indicate time (Red/Yellow/Green)

  • Copy of the House Rules for Committee Hearings

• For Committee Members

  • Copies of Committee Agenda 

  • Students Bring Bill Review Packets

Day Before

Meet with Committee Chairs to review any final questions  and instructions, get final copies of committee agenda.

After school set up tables for committees, organize materials, sort name placards, make copies.  (Rules Committee and Committee Chairs help).

Day Of 

1. Possible opening ceremony/welcome from Speaker of the House.

2. Students arrive and go to their committee (10 minutes to get settled)

3. Possible Caucus Time In Committee (10 minutes)

4. Each Committee will discuss and debate XX bills.  The chair is responsible for the specific agenda and timing, but each bill will take 50-90 minutes. (4-6 hours total) Agenda Template for Committee Hearing

• **if students need to use the restroom, ideally they would just request permission from the chair, and the clerk will record the time they leave and return.  If the whole committee goes at once it creates chaos.

5. Closing ceremony- announce votes on each bill.  

Committee Hearings Documents

For Representatives:

Bill Review - Assignment for all students prior to hearings to assist with preparation. 

Student Handout Committee Hearing Process  - A handout for all students about the expectations and process.

Student Advice for Committee Hearings- It is sometimes good to provide advice from prior students.  You are welcome to use some or all of this advice from former students to help get your kids ready and excited.  Consider using this like you did the "letters of advice" at the start of the year.  

Committee Hearing Testimony Forms- Provide these forms to all students at least one week before the committee hearings.  There are three forms- expert testimony,  verbal testimony, and written testimony.  The document contains instructions.  

Bill Sponsor Speech Locator Forms-   Each member who is giving a bill sponsor speech should fill out and submit this form.  They should be sorted by committee and provided to the committee chair/clerk of each committee. It is used by the secretary to go find the Bill Sponsor when it is time to give their speech.

For Committee Chairs

Welcome Letter for Chairs - Provide to the chairs once they are appointed, in order to welcome and orient them. 

House Rules for Committee Hearings detailed procedures for committee hearings 

Agenda for Committee Chairs Meeting - An sample agenda for an initial meeting with chairs.  

Detailed Chair Script and Instructions: Detailed script and instructions for each step of the hearings, provide during Committee Chair training.  Chairs may want to use this as they more through their first bill, after which they may be able to work off the agenda without the use of the script, or use the basic script (below) if they are comfortable.

Basic Committee Chair Script - This is a more basic script, and could be used in class or in the hearings to guide students

Agenda Template for Committee Hearing  - A template for chairs to use when planning the agenda for their committee, including specific time estimates.

Tools For Encouraging Debate - A document for chairs to provide them with tools for getting debate going if it is slow or stalls out.  Also contains FAQ.  

Group Debrief     Give this to chairs if their committee finishes early and has extra time.

Other Committee Hearings Documents

Secretary/Parliamentarian Responsibilities for Committee Hearings  - Provide to the chairs prior to appointing the Secretary/Parliamentarian, and to the person who is appointed. 

Clerks Responsibilities for Committee Hearing -  Provide to the chairs prior to appointing the Clerk, and to the person who is appointed.