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E-Congress

The Only Fully-Interactive Online Legislative Simulation

Looking for an interactive way to teach about the legislative branch? The Youth Leadership Initiative’s E-Congress program allows students to learn about Congress by writing original legislation and following it through the lawmaking process.

“E-Congress really engages students in the law-making process. Students were amazed at how challenging it is to write good bills, and even the less-motivated students were excited by the ‘realness’ of the activity.”

—Ken High
Pollard Middle School,
Needham, MA
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There are two great ways to participate- our interactive National E-Congress session that runs from January through March and our My E-Congress that allows you to use our technology to run a classroom simulation at any point during the school year.

Pottsville Area High School in Pottsville, Pennsylvania had a fantastic article published in their local paper about their experience with the National E-Congress. Check it out!

National E-Congress

  • Students work through five different phases (introduction, research, writing, committee, amendment, and house floor) to learn about the workings of Congress
  • The 2025 National E-Congress will take place from January 6 through March 28.
  • Each phase of the bill creation process is broken down into manageable segments.
  • Teacher Instructions, calendar and supporting lesson plans make E-Congress easy for teachers to implement.
  • The committee and amendment phases allows classrooms to debate and compromise on bills before sending them to the house floor.
  • Bills that pass the Committee and Amendment phases move on to the House Floor and are voted on by students from around the nation.
  • Participation in the National E-Congress, as with all YLI programs, is FREE to registered educators.  Sign up now to gain access to all YLI resources.

E-Congress Anytime

  • Allows you to run an E-Congress session at any time during the school year
  • Has accompanying lesson plans that demonstrate how to adapt our E-Congress technology for use in your classroom
  • Is the same as the National E-Congress except that you do not interact with other schools

Get in the game by writing and passing your own original piece of legislation!  Student legislators from across the nation participate each year in the National E-Congress analyzing over thousands of pieces of original legislation.

Please email (ylihelp@virginia.edu) or call toll-free (1.866.514.8389) with questions about using E-Congress with your students.