The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Grace H. during the 2008-2009 League.
Mission: Observe - Legislative Session/Committee Meeting
On April 27, the Michigan Home school legislative day, I was able to view a legislative session and committee meeting. We watched the senatorial proceedings for one day. It was short and to the point. First the floor came to order and Senators were given the opportunity to introduce guests from their district. Two Senators spoke on bills they supported one on SB 313 about veteran preferential treatment and the other on SB 163 a bill to clean up the language in police statutes. The Senators both stated that the appointed committees as wholes approved of the bills and the funding for them. Then the floor secretary read off the titles of bills to be briefed for the first or second time. The law requires each title of each bill read on the floor before voting. Then they moved to the order of statements to close the day. Senators Brator, Switalski, Scott, Allen and Pappageorge all spoke about either a cause they were passionate about or an intern leaving for the year. This ended all action on the Senate floor for the day. I was pleased to find out that my Senator, Alan Cropsey, is the Senate Majority Leader.
Immediately following we went to a house committee meeting. It was the House Judicial Committee and they had six members present. In the time we were watching, there were two different men that solicited the committee for funding. One lawyer was from a very passionate man lobbying for circuit court and the other a more laid back from a drug court. The circuit court was requesting more money to switch to paperless filing and to train new employees. The other man from the drug court did not specify as much but put forth evidence of why they needed the money and how they would use it. It was a surprise to me that even though we were not in the budget committee the men were still asking for money. Later in the day when talking to my State Representative, Paul Opsommer, he was saying how everyone wants money, but don't realize that if it was given to all who ask, the state would be trillions of dollars in debt.
I was also able to hear a lecture called, "God, Man and Courts" by attorneys William Wagner and Dave Kallman. It was a great presentation of how government is not possible without God and the moral standard He provides. They quoted Isaiah 33:22 that says "For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king; he will save us." Their point was that the three branches of government come from this verse. Judge = Judiciary, Lawgiver = Legislative, and King = Executive. It really opened my eyes to how much God is in government. Overall it was a good day and I learned a lot.
