What is Congressional Debate?

Congress Debate (commonly referred to simply as Congress) is a debate category of the NSDA with two divisions, the House and the Senate. In local tournaments, the House usually encompasses the novice division while the Senate is made of varsity members. On the national circuit, members of Congress are usually referred to as Representatives in preliminary rounds and Senators in elimination rounds.

Prior to competition, student authored legislation will be released to all competitors. The debaters must then create cases for or against the legislation - commonly called the affirmation and negation. Speakers build their cases through contentions and rhetoric prior to the tournament or build their cases extemporaneously in round. 

The rounds, which usually have 12-20 competitors*, last for approximately 2.5 hours within which multiple pieces of legislation are debated. The parliamentarian, a judge, opens the floor for Presiding Officer (PO) nominations using Robert's Rules of Order. After a PO has been elected, members set an agenda and open the floor for debate. Legislation is always introduced by an author or sponsor on the affirmative, and then the two sides takes turns speaking against and for the bill in speeches of no more than 3 minutes and 10 seconds. A questioning period open to any member of the chamber happens at the end of each speech.

At the end of each piece of legislation, a motion is made to close debate and vote on whether or not to pass. The PO runs all motions, points of order, or questions that arise in the chamber. Judges watch without interference, the parliamentarian may interrupt if the PO is unable to handle the chamber or has a clarifying question.

*most online debates will have no more than 20