Journalist: Heba Saleh (TU)
The House of Representatives heard OSU-001 on Thursday afternoon. This legislation, a Senate bill, was brought by Speaker of the House Mitchell (ALU), President Pro Tempore of the Senate Hurlbut (ALU), Senator Friesen (OSU), and Representative Lowry (OSU).
OSU-001 is an internal piece of legislation, meaning its purpose is to introduce or amend a provision in the O.I.L statutes. In this instance, the authors of the legislation sought to alter the point distribution of O.I.L, which determines the winning delegation of the overall competition. The authors sought to lower the number of overall available points from 111 to 108, strike five of the available points allotted for the Moot Court competition, increase the number granted to the Executive Branch, for the Press Secretary in particular, and change the distribution of the points for Best Delegate, Best Freshman, and Best Legislation. This proved to be the most controversial aspect of the legislation.
The stated intention of the authors was to remove pressure from delegations to bring a freshman delegate in the hopes of them winning the title of Best Freshmen. Some House members took issue with it however, believing that the current point distribution was sufficient and that it is up to the delegation chairs to prevent their freshmen from feeling immense pressure. Such was stated during debate of this bill.
Some delegates further believed that the competition in the House and Senate is, at its core, a legislative competition, meaning writing and presenting legislation should not be devalued and the points granted to Best Legislation not be lessened. The authors had a different view, holding that legislation is only about 10% of what delegates of the House and Senate do at O.I.L, the other portions being composed of debating and caucusing, to which opponents of the bill emphasized that it is legislation that is being debated and discussed.
An additional point of controversy lied in the fact that the bill was not put on Orders of the Day early on, meaning delegates of the House did not have much time to read and absorb the legislation before being asked to form an opinion on it. According to the authors, delegates had plenty of time to read it seeing as the bill was in the bill packet. The reality is, however, that many delegates do not read through the bill packet prior to session.
Despite the controversy over lessening the point distribution for Best Legislation and Best Freshman Delegate while increasing the allocation for Best Delegate as well as the comments regarding the manner in which it was introduced, the bill passed the House 46-28 and is now on its way to the governor.