YG State Conference

By Nora Kelly,
Liberal Arts & Sciences Academy

There are countless reasons that people join the legislative section of Youth and Government, from expanding connections to learning details about how laws are created, presented, and passed. Nicolas Gallego, a clerk for his committee this morning, joined Youth and Government because of his previous exposure to the legislature from a young age. 

“I chose to join the lege because it was something my father did. He was a state representative for a long long time,” Gallego said. “I always thought what he did was fun, so I figured this was a good way for me to get as close to that as I could.” 

Will Bolduc has been competing in lege for four years now and enjoys being able to be a chair and govern over committee debates. Joining Youth and Government was the first step for him to gain hands-on experience in lawmaking procedures. 

“I thought it would be really interesting to learn more about the legislature and the intricacies of how laws are made,” Bolduc said. “My favorite part is getting to debate the highly controversial bills every conference.”

Conference schedules are busy with back to back meetings from the morning to the afternoon. The morning session is used to determine what bills will be presented to the full house in the afternoon. 

“Lege starts every morning split into committees of about 15 people. In each committee, each person’s bill is debated and voted on” Bolduc said. “After committee, we move to the full house debate where we debate a select few bills from the ones that were passed in committee.”

Each participant in the section writes their own bills, arguing about something they are passionate about. They spend the year tweaking them to make as presentable as possible to the full house. 

“My bill is about implementing a harsher punishment for police brutality,” Gallego said “because that is something that I believe is important, especially after everything that has happened these last few years.”

Youth and Government’s legislative section is a good first stepping stone that allows those interested in public policy to test their interest in the procedure. It teaches people real life skills that they will carry for the rest of their lives. 

“I’ve learned a lot about how bills are made and how to research laws, and also a good bit about legislative procedure,” Bolduc said. “If I ever do go into public policy, this experience will be invaluable for writing and shaping real laws.”

The laid back culture of Youth and Government provides students an environment to be comfortable with other high school students so they are more likely to speak their minds about the issues that mean the most to them. 

“My favorite part about being in the legislative branch is debating public policy, because I find most of them to be fascinating,” Gallego said “I’ve definitely felt comfortable enough in Youth and Government to learn how to use my voice to get people’s attention over the years and make my opinion heard.”

Both interested in pursuing a career in politics and public affairs, Bolduc and Gallego have found their home in the legislative branch. Both of them, as well as everyone else in lege, enjoy the opportunity to find an issue that they are passionate about and argue to their peers about why something needs to be done about it.  

Nic Gallego after leading his committee this morning, talking to other members about their bills that were presented.

By LeeAnn Partin,
Hays High School

When exploring the process of how bills are passed in the State of Texas, the Legislative sector finds themselves meeting once again to question and amend acts presented with the hopes to pass to the full chamber of House and Senate. This sector joins together in Committee B, at the 76th State Conference during the weekend of March 2-5, to focus on Bill #HB103.

Bill #HB103 is explained to be an act to make consumption of alcoholic beverages as a minor with parental consent illegal, written by delegate Theodore Nguyen, of Glenda Dawson High School. Delegate Nguyen presents his bill to the legislative body, aiming for favorable recommendation and for amendments that will improve the bill to its best version. Nguyen’s bill details three provisions: 1) Raising the alcohol tax  from 8.25% to 10%, with the purpose of funding this bill, while simultaneously turning away people from alcohol with the price rise; 2) Allocate $200 million to the National Council for Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) to spread awareness; 3) Exclude the consumption of alcohol for religious purposes. Delegate Nguyen’s bill passed with favorable recommendation and is amended once to clarify the definitions listed in his bill.

At the end of this bill’s assessment, delegate Sophie Zhou brought an amendment to the table, focusing on the tiny details of delegate Nguyen’s bill. Bill #HB103 lists definitions to words relevant to the subject matter, specifically: Alcoholic Beverages; Minor; and Consent.

“To protect our children and the future people in our society, I move to specify and clarify the definitions and provisions for this bill,” Zhou said. Delegate Zhou pushed to change the age of full legal responsibility, listed as 18 years old in the bill, to 21 years old as the new age. Delegate Zhou chose to center on these definitions for clarity, eliminating vagueness and assumptions that could be made.

Continuing to the proponent and opponent speeches, delegate Emory Miramontes Eldredge, from Boswell High School, rose as an opponent to Nguyen’s bill and spoke about why  she gaves an unfavorable recommendation. “Most parents would not allow their kids to drink, but they have still had these experiences” Eldredge argued. “I would say that allowing your kid to experience the negative effects of alcohol at a young age and understanding hangover and sickness, allows your kid to understand what’s going on.”

In the designated Question And Answer time slot, delegates brought up important questions to address the policies/actions going to be taken when putting this bill into place.

Delegate Avery Mason, Boswell High School, questioned the jurisdiction of delegate Nguyen’s bill. “Alcohol consumption is a federal issue. This law won’t change anything because this is a federal problem, not a state problem that we can change.” Mason said, questioning Nguyen’s plan of action.

Nguyen explained in response to this that alcohol consumption is under the jurisdiction of both federal and state law, so taking action won’t be an issue. Nguyen described that this bill will focus on public places like restaurants, so staff can implement restrictions of adults consenting to minor consumption.

The legislative body discussed back and forth how delegate Nguyen’s bill will be set into action, either private or public, but concluded with the bill’s planned restrictions for public spaces.

The yea’s are loud in unison for Delegate Nguyen’s bill, not before delegate Grayson Carlson requested a division, initiating a roll call vote to clarify how many delegates are for either side. Delegate Nguyen’s bill went through for favorable recommendation with 8 yea’s and 3 nay’s.

Delegate Eldredge gives her speech against delegate Nguyen’s bill, connecting with the legislative body through her own experiences.

By Piper Watson,
North Central Texas Academy

This year during the seventy-sixth Youth and Government State Conference we have three extraordinary candidates running for the esteemed title of the one and only Youth Governor. Ryan Lee, Vennela Mallampati, and Ramiro Lopez are the confident and talented delegates that are up to the challenge. They each have different strengths and ideas that make them fit the ideal qualifications that we want our Governor to represent the Youth and Government program with. 

Being involved in this outstanding organization for six years has given Vennela Mallampati the opportunity to participate in numerous sections of Youth and Government that are offered, from chairing and clerking to writing her own bills. She has also won distinguished delegate five times. She is confident in her knowledge of how Youth and Government operates and how to improve it using her unique outlook on the organization. For Vennela, the utmost substantial issue is that the governor advances independently after the election. Her desire is that the totality of participants from each and every delegation can assist her in portraying the Youth and Government program by bringing about a Governor’s advisory board to aid in planning the district and state conferences, food, and to voice any concerns that require setting up invitationals and workshops. Vennela believes “currently the biggest issue is that the governor works alone once they get elected and I wanna change that because I think that it’s incredibly important to get the people’s voices here like the youth in youth in government and so to do that I want to create a governors advisory board where somebody from each delegation. They would elect a representative to help me out if I win next year and give me input on district and state planning, food of course, and especially on what they need help on so we can plan invitationals and workshops.”

Ramiro Lopez has had several leadership experiences outside of this program. He was an advisor for the San Antonio Independent School District superintendent and also interned for United States House Representative Tony Gonzales. He is acquainted with doing hands-on work for the community. Ramiro is promoting increased amounts of hands-on work with all of our delegates from acquiring judges and attorneys for judicial diplomats to obtaining legislators to teach our legislative delegates the paramount and proficient ways to write their bills. Ramiro says that “If elected I would like to get more hands-on work when it comes to our delegates. So when it comes to judicial more judges and attorneys to work hands-on and the same for legislative more legislators to work with them on how to write bills.”

Having partaken in being an ambassador for Youth and Government and also outside of the organization is something that Ryan Lee has extensive familiarity with. He is president of several honor societies and other, smaller clubs. He comes from a smaller county on the outskirts of Houston, so he understands what it is like to be from the smaller delegations. Ryan thinks that “people should vote for me because I do come from a smaller delegation, so I do know what the smaller delegations want and need.” Maintaining and engaging the educational and political aspects of Youth and Government is a vital improvement Ryan would like to accomplish if elected.

All three incredible candidates already have plans on how they will improve our program for the better if they are elected. They all agree on striving to get the smaller delegations to have more voice and to assist them to work more with the larger groups while diversifying their perspectives to be exceptionally prepared for state. Overall these three intelligent and accomplished delegates all have the skills essential to be a successful governor, but only one will be elected to the position. Voting for any of these three brilliant and gifted individuals will reinforce and ensure that our Youth and Government program is properly represented and will flourish in the years to come.

Gubernatorial candidates Vennela Mallampati (L), Ryan Lee (C), and Ramiro Lopez (R).