Topics - All Events

Policy Debate will use the NSDA 2024-25 topic -- Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly strengthen its protection of domestic intellectual property rights in copyrights, patents, and/or trademarks.

LD Debate will use the NSDA September/October 2024 topic -- Resolved: The United States ought to require that workers receive a living wage.

PF Debate will use the NSDA September/October 2024 topic -- Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially expand surveillance infrastructure along its southern border.

No novice topics will be used in any division.

WSD will follow the scaffold and TFA Constitution recommendations. We will break to TFA points for elimination rounds. Elim 1 will always be the first elimination round, whether that is quarterfinals, semifinals, or finals, and so on.

Round 1 AND 2 (students will debate both sides): This House regrets the dominance of the two-party system in American politics.

Round 3: Impromptu

Round 4: This House believes that the acquisition of startups by large corporations does more harm than good.

Elim 1: Impromptu

Elim 2: This House prefers conditional foreign aid to unconditional aid.

Elim 3 (if needed): This House believes that the environmental rights of future generations supersede the economic interests of current generations.

Congress will follow the TFA Scaffold for Fall 2024. All legislation will be pulled from this link: https://www.txfa.org/_files/ugd/a3a5e9_6d6d91ca3a514a3d8742287239108546.pdf

Prelims: 9, 8, 7, 10, 6

Semifinals (if needed): 18, 20, 19, 16, 17

Finals: 11, 13, 12, 15, 14

Additionally, we will be using Rule 2(l) on page 68 of the TFA Constitution and limiting floor debate per item of legislation to no more than one-third of a session's total floor time. We anticipate that will be 1 hour per piece of legislation.

As per the TFA Constitution page 67, section 2 - "When no one seeks the floor for debate, the presiding officer may ask the chamber if they are 'ready for the question' at which point, if there is no objection, voting may commence on the legislation itself. There is no 'minimum cycle.'"

Chambers are welcome to move the previous question or to table legislation as they see fit without a requirement for authorship or debate on a particular item. This should be done in accordance with parliamentary procedure.

Extemp will use the following topic areas:

IX:

Round 1 - South America

Round 2 - North America

Round 3 - Middle East

Semifinals (if needed): Asia

Finals: Europe

DX:

Round 1 - Elections

Round 2 - Congress

Round 3 - Economy

Semifinals (if needed): Climate

Finals: Foreign Policy

NX will be a mixed format and involve topics from both IX and DX.