Did you know there are seventeen legislators for Westchester county? I didn’t know that until my class took a field trip to the Westchester County Board of Legislators. In this blog post you will hear all about what I learned on this field trip. You will also learn about all the things I enjoyed during the field trip.
Two things I learned from the trip are the steps of how a bill becomes a law in a county and about how legislators discuss and sometimes they disagree. The first step in a bill becoming a law is, it has to go through a committee of legislators, but not all have to attend. Also people from the public can attend the meeting. They go around discusing their opinions to the chairperson (he or she is in charge of the meeting). Then they all vote YAY (yes) or NAY (yes). If the majority vote NAY, then the bill stops there, but if the majority vote YAY, then the bill goes to a full chamber of legislators, clerks, public speakers, and the chairperson. There they go around discusing their opinions to the chairperson again. Then they all vote YAY or NAY again. If the majority vote YAY then the bill becomes a law. If the majority vote NAY it goes back to the committee to improve it. I also learned when legislators don’t agree they try to convince other legislators. Sometimes legislators get convinced when other legislators state their opinions. Sometimes legislators completely disagree with other legislators and they stand by their opinion.
Two things I enjoyed was being a legislator and meeting Legislator Benjamin Boykin. I liked being a legislator because we get to vote on laws. Everybody got to state their opinion/vote on a bill into the real legislator microphones and got to sit in a real legislator chair (inside of the real chamber that the legislators vote in). I liked meeting Benjamin Boykin because he is the real legislator for my district. We got to take a picture with him and he gave each and everyone of us a certificate of merit signed by him and the chairman.
In this blog post, you read about what I learned during this field trip and what I enjoyed during it. I hoped you learned an interesting fact from this post. Would you want to be a legislator for Westchester county?