Bellevue High's 2026 Mock Congress

Photo by Aimee Ni

  Every year, there is an event hosted at Bellevue High School that not many know about. It is the annual mock congress that combines multiple classes from three civics and government teachers with nearly 200 participants. The meeting is hosted during the school day within the Performance Art Center and aims to provide students with an opportunity to act as members of the House of Representatives and get hands-on experience of what congress is like.

            So how did this event come to be? Around the year 2018, the AP US Government and Politics teacher Michelle Beito combined her two classes for a joint mock congress in the library. It continued that way for a few years, until more teachers started showing interest in it.

            “Mr. Litz was interested in the event, and we eventually broadened it to Mr. Litz and Ms. McCormick's Civics classes as well. With kind support from Mr. Klein, we moved to the PAC a few years ago when the library couldn't hold us all anymore,” Beito said.

Mock congress is a grand event, so students need to do a lot of prep work make it run smoothly. Students begin working on preparations weeks before the meeting. First, students pick any congressional district from the US to become its representative. Then, everyone writes a piece of legislation that will be sent to committee and hopefully gets on the floor for debate. Next, each committee group (that students are assigned to) reads through the bills and decides which ones should be passed, edited or failed. Bills are judged on a variety of factors, including its quality, relevance, support and whether it’s liberal or conservative. The ten bills calendared for debate were chosen from nearly 200 pieces of legislature.

“I love how much student work and leadership is centered in Mock Congress. From student-written bills to committee work, to electing party leadership, to managing bills and speaking, everything is student centered,” Beito said.

Mrs. Beito, Speaker of the House Brooke Bede, and Majority Leader Harry Zhao on the stage. Photo by Aimee Ni

Indeed, there are many opportunities for student leadership. Every session has six leaders with three responsible for leading each party throughout the whole process. On the Democratic majority this year, students elected by vote Brooke Bede as Speaker of the House, Harry Zhao as Majority Leader and Mingze Shi as the Majority Whip. For the Republican minority, Ramzey Neff was the Minority leader and Jiadong Gu was the Minority Whip.

“I really enjoyed being speaker of the house! I will say it was a lot of work that had to happen between me and the other members of party leadership.  We had to read through hundreds of bills and sort them, so that was a little tiring,” Bede said.

This year’s session was on Thursday, February 12 during seventh period. Students filed into the meeting area dressed in suits and business wear. Everyone was given an orange and green card to raise when they wanted to show support or disagreement. Bill managers—those in charge of defending or opposing a bill—held quick check-ins with their speakers while a lively chatter was heard throughout the space. Then, the Speaker of the House banged the gavel, and the 2026 mock congress officially began.

Speaker Jiadong Gu giving a passionate speech against the CLEAN Future Act. Photo by Aimee Ni

The first bill to be debated was the CLEAN Future Act. It aimed to reduce carbon emissions and invest in clean energy. Both sides, the bill manager and opposition manager, were allotted six minutes to speak, and each brought up speakers to support them. At the end the Speaker of the House asked for a motion for the previous question to end debate. Everyone then voted to pass or fail the bill.

“When we did the floor debate… it was a little nerve-racking at first being up onstage and chairing, but after the first bill, I felt like I entered the flow state, and it was really fun to cut people off,” Bede adds.

Unluckily for the CLEAN Future Act, it did not pass. However, all the other bills proposed such as the Every County Counts Act, the Big Reform Act and the American Urban Rail Act (AURA) were passed. The debate was especially intense for AURA, as the opposition speakers were very passionate in their speeches. Although it led to a rowdy crowd, order was quickly restored by the Speaker of the House.

“This year all my classes did an incredible job… [and] was notable for having a very lively chamber during the floor debate,” Beito said.

The session lasted for an hour and a half. Sadly, there was not enough time to debate all ten bills, and only five were fit into the time slot. However, it is no doubt that the meeting was an enriching experience for all participating students.