Minnesota State Bill Proposal Contest
Your challenge is to find a bill proposal in the House of Representatives this session. Try
to find a bill that you think can be defended and that others would support. The further
your bill goes in the contest, the more American Government dollars you will earn!!
What to do?
1) Go to the following website: http://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/legis.asp
2) Click on Search House Bills - Current Session
3) Find a topic in Search by Topics and click go
4) Look under Short Description to get a general idea about the bills associated with the
topic you chose. Click on “Bill Text” to see the bill itself to learn more about the bill.
Questions you should consider and be prepared to debate:
 What does the bill want to do?
 Why is this a good idea?
 Who will benefit from this bill?
 Will this bill impact anyone in a negative manner?
Rounds of Competition
1st Round – Individuals – groups of 3 individuals
Round 1 Winner - $100
 The class will be randomly broken into 9 groups of 2/3/4
 Each individual will present the bill they chose and defend it
 Each group will have 15 minutes to work through the bills and decide on
one that their group will promote during later rounds.
 To determine the winner, members will vote and plurality wins.
 Each individual that has their bill chosen will earn $100.
2nd Round – Groups – 3 different groups
Round 2 Winner - $250
 3 groups will randomly be merged into 1 Super Group
 Each group will present “their” bill and defend it.
 Each Super Group will have 15 minutes to work through the bills and
decide on one their group will promote during the final round.
 To determine the winner, members will vote and plurality wins.
 Each group that has their bill chose will earn $250 for each group
member.
3rd Round – Class – Presentation to Senate
Round 3 Winner - $500
 Each of the 3 final bills will be read to a different hour, which will vote for
the bill they believe is the best. (Majority needed)
 Each member of the Super Group that represents the winning bill will
receive $500!!