New Mexico District Qualifier

for the 2026 National Tournament

Congressional Debate Legislation Submission Instructions

Congress Legislation Instructions:

The New Mexico District Congressional Tournament is coming up on Saturday, February 14. Ideally, students will debate a wide variety of topics that day in the form of legislation composed by students from each competing school. To that end, please ensure your students take note of the following:

• The NSDA requires district legislation be shared with students no later than 14 days prior to the tournament, which means all legislation must be submitted by midnight on Friday, January 30. This is a hard deadline, as the docket must be sent out the next day for us to be in compliance with the NSDA's guidelines!

• Students should submit their legislation to their coaches, who should then compile it and send it to Hannah, hflake@eastmountainhigh.net.

• Especially since this deadline falls in the middle of the Cottonwood Tournament, coaches are encouraged to set earlier deadlines for their teams' submissions to allow sufficient time for review (just a quick read-through to check for major issues such as unoriginal content) and compilation.

• To facilitate compilation of the official docket, please submit legislation in an editable form (e.g., a Microsoft Word or Google doc) rather than as a pdf.

• Remember that, as of this year, there is no longer any cap on the number of items of legislation each school can submit. However, please note that legislation is selected with the goal of producing quality dockets that promote productive debate, equity of school representation, and diversity of topics. Thus, submitting an item of legislation does not guarantee that item's inclusion.

• Also remember that students are encouraged to credit themselves as authors of their legislation if they so desire, though it is still perfectly fine to leave names off and credit just the entire school instead.

If students (or coaches) desire any additional guidance writing legislation, please encourage them to reach out to Hannah and/or to review this presentation (which includes useful resources on the final slide).