Model Congress Conference Targets Two GOA-backed Bills

By Shayne Cytrynbaum ‘25
Golda Och Academy’s delegates in the New Jersey Model Congress prepared heavily for this year’s spring conference. Among the bill targets for the conference are two bills by GOA students. 

The Democrats have targeted to pass a bill written by sophomore Maya Levine which seeks “to expand the use of alternative energies” such as solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal and nuclear for use in new buildings. 
The Republicans, meanwhile, targeted sophomore Solomon Langer’s bill to pass, which aims “to provide incentives for auto technician education” in public schools.
The March conference included jam-packed sessions full of debating, negotiating, arguing, compromising and voting. The official Bill Targets for each of the three parties have recently been released, along with the finalized packet of student-written bills and everyone is excited for the culmination of an exciting Model Congress preparatory season.
    Back in December, GOA students traveled to the New Jersey State House Annex in Trenton to debate party platforms and elect party leaders. New Jersey Model Congress features three parties: the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and a third party which chooses its own name and style each year. This year’s third party choice is the “Fortnite Party,” whose name follows a long legacy of joke names, including most recently the “POG Party” (a reference to the internet slang term) and the “Mommy Party.”
Although the parties are each based on real-life political parties, they are not required to align exactly, as their party platforms are created completely by students. As a result, the Democrats usually occupy a more unapologetically progressive stance than the national party establishment, the Republicans are often more libertarian in nature and the Third Party will oscillate in platform from year to year. 
    Students also got to elect party leaders in December, with two GOA students elected to leadership positions this year. Sophomore Shayne Cytrynbaum was elected Party Leader for the Democrats, having served previously as the Party Leader for the third party choice last year, and sophomore Austin Colm was selected as Party Whip for the Republicans, a repeat of his position last year as well.
    GOA students were split among the three rooms, with the bulk heading to either the Democrats or the Republicans to support their fellow students’ candidacies. 
    “I thought the Democrat room was a great example of how people can have conflicting views but still be from the same party,” said sophomore Rachel Nadelmann. “There were debates about various issues in today’s world, but at the end of the day we unified around a common vision.”
    “I originally tried each of the three parties’ rooms, [but in the end] the Republican room seemed to be the best group to work with,” Langer said. “It was nice to have Austin [Colm] in there with me because we had a GOA coalition.”
The leadership teams of each party met again in February to select 5 bills to pass and 5 bills to fail, as the official party “targets.” Among the bills targeted to pass, the Democrats desire to pass a bill to create universal Pre-K education, the Fortnite Party is trying to pass a bill to reform zoning laws and the Republicans want to pass a bill to abolish the penny. Alternatively, the Democrats are trying to fail a bill to ban trans women from women’s sports, the Fortnite Party wants to fail a bill to authorize the monitoring of social media platforms and the Republicans desire to fail a bill to increase the minimum wage to $15/hour.
“I am really happy that they are targeting my bill to pass, not just because it is my bill but because I think it is a pretty good idea,” added Langer.
Now, delegates are getting ready for the big day. Students will be divided up into several different committees, each with a different topic of discussion, including the Senate Committee on Health (“SHEA”), Senate Committee on Commerce (“SCOM”), and the House Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources, Energy and Government Reform (“HENG”). 
Students from several different New Jersey schools will be able to vote on GOA students’ bills, which cover topics as diverse as promoting Stem Cell research, providing free Plan B birth control, allowing 16-year-olds to vote, putting term limits on Supreme Court justices and reforming the federal land system.
While all of the GOA students are serious about the importance of political engagement for youth, sometimes a few not serious bills may wind up being voted on at Model Congress. One notable example of this was a bill to establish three “Swinging Pendulum Death Laser Guillotines” as a method of capital punishment, which are meant to cheapen executions despite each projected to cost $1 million to hypothetically build. 
Every single student in the committee room opposed the death penalty in principle, but because the sponsor of the bill never showed up, GOA students were forced to argue in favor of the bill despite finding it ridiculous. At one point, most delegates in the committee room left to take a lunch break, leaving senior Izzi Zellan as the acting Committee Chair while sophomore Shayne Cytrynbaum was forced to argue both for and against the bill, due to the absence of people. 
    Still, in all of its fun, there remain important lessons to be learned from participating in Model Congress. Students are exposed to new ideas about politics and have the opportunity to freely express and argue their own views, and are able to further develop their public speaking and rhetorical skills. 
“I think Model Congress is a great outlet for students to share their voices on problems that they feel passionate about,” said Nadelmann. “It gives students a greater understanding of how the US Congress functions and how [real-world] bills get either passed or failed.”