Fantasy Congress: The Sweet Sixteen Activity
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Fantasy Congress Instructions You may write on the tournament bracket, but in order to have adequate space to write, please use a separate sheet of paper to complete tasks 3 and 4. You only need one paper per group, however, please make sure all of your names are on the paper. 1. Working as a group with members of your table, read about the sixteen most influential
laws passed by Congress. (These laws were highlighted in Government's Greatest Achievement's: From Civil Rights to Homeland Security, by Paul C. Light, and The Laws that Shaped America: Fifteen Acts of Congress and their Lasting Impact, by Dennis W. Johnson.)
2. Play the “teams” (the laws) against one another on the tournament bracket. Base your winner for each division on which law has had the most influence or benefit for the common good.
3. Write one sentence about the loser of each bracket, explaining why you felt it was a weaker or less effective law than the winner. You should have a total of 14 sentences, excluding the Championship Game.
4. Championship Game: You will be responsible for highlighting the advantages of the ultimate achievement of Congress.
o Title of Act, Year it was Passed
o Description: What did the legislation provide for? What was it about?
o Powers: Which expressed or implied powers of Congress allowed this legislation to take place?
o What if? Write a 1-2 paragraph description of what the US or world would be like if this legislation had never been passed.
Space Exploration
Food Quality Protection
Wilderness Protection
Interstate Highw
ays
Elite Eight
Elite Eight
Arms Reduction
Civil Rights Protection
Final Four
Final Four
Fantasy Con
gressTourn
amen
t Bracket
Bank Stability
Regional Winner
EAST
Marshall Plan
Elite Eight
Elite Eight
Consumer Safety
Promise of Land
Higher Education
Westw
ard Expansion
Elite Eight Elite Eight
Child Nutrition
Regional Winner
WEST
The GI Bill
Final Four
Final Four
Social Security
Wom
en’s Suffrage
Elite Eight Elite Eight
Ultim
ate Champion
:
Group
Names:
Fan
tasy Con
gress: T
he Sw
eet Sixteen
Prom
oting Space Exploration N
ational Aeronautics and Space A
ct of 1958
Since the end of World
War II, the U
nited States had w
orked hto m
ake breakthrouin rocket science. his particular
ard ghs
nded or
nd
Tlegislation expathe original N
ational Advisory Com
mittee f
Aeronautics (NACA)
into what is now
known
as NASA. N
ASA research, w
hich was
generously funded by Eisenhower’s successors, John F.
Kennedy and Richard Nixon, w
as responsible for successful and groundbreaking Am
erican achievements
such as the Apollo 11 lunar landing in 1969 and the developm
ent of the space shuttle, first launched in 1981. M
ore recently, NASA has sent robotic exploratory m
issions to M
ars and launched a spacecraft to view Pluto. N
ASA’s research has also contributed to advances in consum
er-oriented goods such as telecom
munications satellites a
computer technology.
Wilderness Protection
Wilderness A
ct of 1964 This Act directed the Secretary of the Interior, w
ithin 10 years, to review
every roadless area of 5,000 or more
acres and every roadless island (regardless of size) within
National W
ildlife Refuge and National Park System
s and to recom
mend to the President the suitability of each
such area or island for inclusion in the National
Wilderness Preservation System
, with final decisions
made by C
ongress. U
nder authority of this Act, over 25 m
illion acres of land and w
ater in the N
ational W
ildlife Refuge System
were
reviewed.
Seven million
acres in were
found to be suitable to be m
ade into national parks. From these
recomm
endations, as of Decem
ber 1998, over 6,832,800 acres have been established as part of the N
ational W
ilderness Preservation System by special Acts of
Congress.
1
Fan
tasy Con
gress: T
he Sw
eet Sixteen
A
rms Reduction
The Arm
s Control and Disarm
ament A
ct of 1961 This w
as landmark legislation designed to create arm
s control and reduction as a key com
ponent of United
States national security policy during and after the Cold W
ar. W
ith this act, Congress achieved three main tasks: (1) it
set ambitious goals and purposes for coordinating
disarmam
ent with other defense strategies; (2) it created
the U.S. Arm
s Control and Disarm
ament Agency, a body
that would m
ake the country's comm
itment to arm
s control a part of its governing institutions; and (3) it established standards and procedures for integrating all aspects of security policy. This act w
as crucial in encouraging the U
nited States to work together w
ith other countries, such as Russia, tow
ards reducing nuclear stockpiles.
Bank Stability Banking A
ct of 1933 By the early 1930s, the G
reat D
epression had started and Am
erica's financial markets
lay in ruin. Due to the
financial chaos initiated by the stock m
arket crash of O
ctober 1929, more than
9,000 banks had failed by M
arch of 1933, signaling the w
orst economic depression in
modern history.
The government took action to protect people w
ho had deposited their m
oney in banks by creating the Banking Act of 1933, w
hich also formed the FD
IC. The FDIC's
purpose was to provide stability to the econom
y and the failing banking system
. Officially created in the G
lass-Steagall Act of 1933, and m
odeled after the deposit insurance program
initially enacted in Massachusetts, the
FDIC guaranteed a specific am
ount of checking and savings deposits for its m
ember banks. This action
prevented thousands of people from losing m
oney they had saved, and encouraged people to start depositing m
oney to banks once again.
2
Fan
tasy Con
gress: T
he Sw
eet Sixteen
Consum
er Safety and Protection The Consum
er Product Safety Act of 1972
This created the Consumer
Product Safety Com
mission w
hich, when
it finds an unreasonable risk of injury associated w
ith a consumer product
it can develop a standard to reduce or elim
inate the risk. It can also ban a product if it does not m
eet reasonable safety standards, and it has the authority to force recalls for products that present a substantial product hazard. This sam
e legislation is the one that protects consum
ers from lead in paint, toys that are fire hazards,
and other dangerous problems.
This legislation also led to consumer protection in other
areas, including food, drugs, cosmetics, m
edical devices, tobacco products, firearm
s and amm
unition, motor
vehicles, pesticides, aircraft, boats and fixed site am
usement rides.
Increase Access to Post-Secondary Education
Higher Education A
ct of 1965 W
ith the goal of strengthening American colleges and
universities, the Higher Education Act provides financial
assistance and other resources for students pursuing postsecondary and college degrees. The act also provides funding for extension and continuing education program
s. It allocates [gives] funds to increase library collections, and the num
ber of employed qualified librarians. It also
focuses on strengthening schools by means of faculty
exchange programs, joint use of learning facilities, and
training programs for developing m
ore capable faculties. Finally, the H
igher Education Act assists students by supporting undergraduate scholarships, loans w
ith reduced interest rates, and w
ork-study programs. It
concentrates on im
proving the quality of teaching, and provides financial assistance to im
prove undergraduate instruction (by, for exam
ple, providing assistance to those institutions that are unable to afford m
odern teaching m
aterials).
3
Fan
tasy Con
gress: T
he Sw
eet Sixteen
Reduce H
unger and Improve N
utrition Child N
utrition Act of 1966 The Act w
as created as a result of the years of cum
ulative successful experience under the N
ational School Lunch Program
to help m
eet the nutritional needs of children. The N
ational School Lunch Program
feeds 30.5 million children per day (as of 2007).
NSLP w
as operated in over 101,000 public and nonprofit private schools in 2007. The m
ilk program, functioning
since 1954, was extended on June 30, 1970 and
incorporated into the act. The act also provided Federal funding assistance tow
ards non-food purchases for school equipm
ent. The act established the School Breakfast Program
, a federally assisted m
eal program that provides low
-cost or free breakfasts to children in public and non-profit schools as w
ell as child care institutions. During the
signing of the act, the president remarked that “good
nutrition is essential to good learning.”
Promoting Security and H
ealth for the Elderly Social Security Acts of 1935 and 1965 This w
as enacted in the throes of the Great D
epression. The law
got its title from the groundbreaking social
insurance program designed to provide a steady incom
e for retired w
orkers aged 65 or older. The act has been am
ended numerous tim
es, and payroll taxes grew
to pay for it. In the 1950s, more people w
ere added to Social Security's beneficiary pool, and the benefit w
as increased, including the first cost-of-living allow
ance since 1940. In 1956, disability insurance was
instituted. Early retirement for w
omen at age 62 w
as perm
itted. Payroll taxes hovered at four percent. In 1965, the passage of the Social Security Act Am
endments, popularly know
n as Medicare, resulted in a
basic program of hospital insurance for persons aged 65
and older, and a supplementary m
edical insurance program
to aid the elderly in paying health care bills. It w
as funded by a tax on the earnings of em
ployees, matched
by by employers,
and was w
ell received. In the first three years of the program
, nearly 20 m
illion beneficiaries enrolled in it.
4
Fan
tasy Con
gress: T
he Sw
eet Sixteen
Safe Food and D
rinking Water
Food Quality Protection Act (FQ
PA) of 1996 Congress presented the Environm
ental Protection Agency w
ith an enormous challenge of im
plementing the m
ost com
prehensive and historic overhaul of the Nation's
pesticide and food safety laws in decades.
The Food Quality Protection Act am
ended the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Federal Food D
rug, and Cosmetic Act (FFD
CA) by fundam
entally changing the way EPA regulates
pesticides. Som
e of the major
requirements include
stricter safety standards, especially for infants and children, and a com
plete reassessm
ent of all existing pesticide tolerances. This w
eb site provides background inform
ation on FQ
PA's provisions and discusses som
e of the specific issues raised by FQ
PA, as well as the law
's im
plementation status.
Strengthen the Nation's H
ighway System
Interstate H
ighway Act of 1956
Popularly known as the
National Interstate and
Defense H
ighways Act,
the Federal-Aid H
ighway Act of 1956
established an interstate highw
ay system
in the United
States. The movem
ent behind the construction of a transcontinental highw
ay started in the 1930s w
hen President Franklin Roosevelt expressed interest in the construction of a netw
ork of toll superhighw
ays that w
ould provide more jobs for people in need of w
ork during the G
reat Depression. But w
ith America on the
verge of joining the war in Europe, the tim
e for a massive
highway program
had not arrived. At the end of the war,
the Federal-Aid Highw
ay Act of 1944 funded highway
improvem
ents and established major new
ground by authorizing and designating, the construction of 40,000 m
iles of a “National System
of Interstate Highw
ays.”
5
Fan
tasy Con
gress: T
he Sw
eet Sixteen
Civil Rights – Reducing D
iscrimination
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This act, signed into law
by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, prohibited discrim
ination in public places, provided for the integration of
schools and other public facilities, and made em
ployment
discrimination illegal. The act outlaw
ed segregation in businesses such as theaters, restaurants, and hotels. It banned discrim
inatory practices in employm
ent and ended segregation in public places such as sw
imm
ing pools, libraries, and public schools.This docum
ent was
the most sw
eeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. In a nationally televised address in 1963, President Kennedy urged the nation to take action tow
ard guaranteeing equal treatm
ent of every American
regardless of race. Soon after, Kennedy proposed that Congress consider civil rights legislation that w
ould address voting rights, public accom
modations, school
desegregation, nondiscrimination in federally assisted
programs, and m
ore. Despite Kennedy’s assassination in
Novem
ber of 1963, his proposal culminated in the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, signed into law by President Johnson.
Marshall Plan: Rebuilding Europe after W
orld War II
Economic Recovery Act of 1948
Better known as the M
arshall Plan, this Act provided econom
ic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure
of post-war Europe.
When W
orld War II ended in 1945, Europe lay in ruins: its
cities were shattered; its econom
ies were devastated; its
people faced famine. After the w
ar, the Soviet Union’s
control of Eastern Europe heightened the sense of crisis. To m
eet this emergency, Secretary of State G
eorge Marshall
proposed that Europe create a plan for their economic
reconstruction and that the United States provide econom
ic assistance. O
ver the next four years, Congress appropriated $13.3 billion for European recovery. This aid provided m
uch needed capital and m
aterials that enabled Europeans to rebuild the continent’s econom
y. For the US, the M
arshall Plan provided m
arkets for American goods, created reliable
trading partners, and supported the developm
ent of stable dem
ocratic governments in
Western Europe. In short,
the Marshall Plan re-
energized the economies
of both the United States
and Europe. Congress’s approval of the M
arshall Plan signaled an extension of the bipartisanship of W
orld War II into the
postwar years.
6
Fan
tasy Con
gress: T
he Sw
eet Sixteen
The Prom
ise of Land The H
omestead and M
orrill Act of 1862 The H
omestead Act, enacted during the Civil W
ar in 1862, provided that any adult citizen, or intended citizen, w
ho had never taken arms against the U
.S. governm
ent could claim 160 acres of governm
ent land. Claim
ants were required to “im
prove” the plot by building a dw
elling and cultivating the land. After 5 years on the land, the original filer w
as entitled to the property, free and clear, except for a sm
all registration fee. The M
orrill Act comm
itted the Federal Governm
ent to grant each state 30,000 acres of public land for each of its Representatives and Senators in Congress. The M
orrill land grants laid the foundation for a national system
of state colleges and universities. In som
e cases, the land sales financed existing colleges; in others, new
schools w
ere created by the states. Major universities such as
Nebraska, Kentucky, Clem
son, and Cornell were
chartered as land-grant schools. State colleges brought higher education w
ithin the reach of m
illions of students, a developm
ent that could not help but reshape the nation’s social and econom
ic fabric.
Westw
ard Expansion N
orthwest O
rdinance of 1787
Considered to be one of the most significant
achievements of the Congress of the Confederation, the
Northw
est Ordinance of 1787 put the w
orld on notice not only that the land north of the O
hio River and east of the M
ississippi would be settled, but that it w
ould eventually becom
e part of the United States. U
ntil then this area had been tem
porarily forbidden to development.
Increasing numbers of settlers and land speculators w
ere attracted to w
hat are now the states of O
hio, Indiana, Illinois, M
ichigan and Wisconsin. This pressure together
with the dem
and from the O
hio Land Company, soon to
obtain vast holdings in the Northw
est, prompted the
Congress to pass this Ordinance.
7
Fan
tasy Con
gress: T
he Sw
eet Sixteen
8
iced
Promise to A
merican Veterans
GI Bill of 1944
This was a series of benefits for W
orld War II veterans
granted by the U.S. Congress under the Servicem
en's Readjustm
ent Act of 1944 and extended by later legislation. Adm
inistrated by the Veterans Adm
inistration, these benefits included educational scholarships for college or vocational training, m
ortgage loan guarantees for hom
e buyers, and cash payments for
those unemployed after discharge. Betw
een 1944 and 1949, nearly 9 m
illion veterans received a total of $4 billion from
the G.I. Bill's com
pensation program.
Benefits similar to the G
.I. Bill would be extended to
veterans of the Korean War. Subsequently, the Veterans’
Readjustment Benefits Act of 1966 extended such
provisions to all who serve in the arm
ed forces, even in peacetim
e. The precedents established by the G
.I. Bill for federal aid to higher education w
ould expand over the course of the Cold W
ar. Totaling over $14 billion, the bill w
as crucial to the expansion of the m
iddle class.
Wom
en’s Suffrage 19th Am
endment, 1920
The 19th am
endment
guarantees all American w
omen
the right to vote. Achieving this m
ilestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the m
id-19th century, several generations of w
oman suffrage
supporters lectured, wrote,
marched, lobbied, and pract
civil disobedience to achieve w
hat many Am
ericans considered a radical change of the Constitution. Few
early supporters lived to see final victory in 1920. Betw
een 1878, when the am
endment w
as first introduced in Congress, and August 18, 1920, w
hen it was ratified,
champions of voting rights for w
omen w
orked tirelessly, but strategies for achieving their goal varied. Som
e pursued a strategy of passing suffrage acts in each state—nine w
estern states adopted wom
an suffrage legislation by 1912. Som
e suffragists used tactics such as parades and hunger strikes. O
ften supporters met fierce
resistance. Opponents heckled, jailed, and som
etimes
physically abused them.
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