Newsroom Archive for 06/24, 2010

College Leaders Program Class of 2010
Day 25-Wednesday, June 23
Recorded by: Ryan Huff, George Mason University

Today as our last several days at Sorensen wound down, we had the opportunity to complete Day 2 of our budget game. We were once again split into our two separate groups: the House of Delegates and the Senate. Once the House was able to find an unoccupied room, both groups were able to get down to work by first selecting their chair.

Unlike the previous budget game, both chambers were facing a very unfavorable economy with a deficit of $1.4 billion. As we began looking through the options of spending, reductions, and revenue that Professor Bragaw had prepared for us, we began to realize this would be no easy task. Anytime you put people of different backgrounds in the same room there will always be differing opinions, and today was no exception. Although there were some tense moments, both chambers were able to work their way through the process to present a respectable budget.

This was only the first step however. After a working lunch, the House and Senate to combined to form two conference committees. The goal of the conference committees was to attempt to merge the House version and Senate version into one bill. Because the two bodies had very different ideologies, the budgets had several distinct differences that would require a compromise. Luckily both conference committees were able to piece together parts of their bills to present two quality bills to the full floor of the Assembly. After some brief debate, both the House and Senate voted to approve Budget A, thus concluding our session with a balanced budget.

The budget game was a great way to learn the art of political compromise and show exactly what people are capable of when working together. After a long day in the classroom, it was time to head back to Bice House to prepare for our mock interviews. Each of the five policy groups had a chance to pitch their presentation to the youth staff members and got some quality advice that will no doubt help when presenting to the panel.