Each team attempts to research as many topics as possible, with each participant choosing to stand in affirmation or negation of the legislation being debated.
Unlike other debate events, students drive the topics for discussion by drafting their own legislation for submission to tournaments.
Contestants from each school research and prepare arguments both in favor and against each legislation in the docket before arriving at the tournament.
If nobody from the author's school is present, another debater gives a sponsorship speech (sometimes called the first affirmative), which is functionally identical to an authorship.
Within each speech, contestants develop two or three organized, logical arguments supported by credible evidence for why the chamber should vote for or against the given legislation.
Some leagues and tournaments still use a protocol where the balanced of unused speaking time is reserved for questioning, rather than having a specific period.
While all Congressional Debate competition rely upon parliamentary procedure as practiced in Congress (i.e. the Standing Rules of the United States Senate or the Procedures of the United States House of Representatives) as the underpinning for how sessions are conducted, there may be slight variations in how the competition itself is run.
The presiding officer's job is to facilitate fair, balanced, and efficient debate during the session in which they have been elected, primarily through recognition of speakers and questioners (see section below).
Beyond that, the National Forensic League and common practice have dictated that students also consider who spoke earlier (referred to as "recency").
The National Forensic League and many tournaments have (as of 2012) ruled the use of methods that tie the number of questions asked or motions made to speaker recognition, as well as how many times a student has stood, out of order, because they result in competitors simply "playing the game".
Additionally, since debate becomes more complex after more arguments have been introduced, later speakers bear a higher burden for clash and refutation.
In some areas, before precedence and recency are established, priority cards are distributed or numbers are designated to each student, giving the presiding officer a clear and objective directive as to whom to recognize.
This has been criticized by longtime National Forensic League Congress Coordinator Harold Keller for entirely removing the dynamism of the activity from students' hands.
Some tournaments establish a minimum time before the previous question can be moved; others limit how long each legislation may be debated.
When debate gets one-sided, or "stale," often a contestant will rise and move the previous question, which requires two-thirds of the chamber concurring.
The presiding officer (often in consultation with the parliamentarian) will first determine if the amendment is germane; or if it changes the original intent of the legislation, it is ruled dilatory.
While judging a speech is clearly, to a certain extent, subjective, there are certain key standards that distinguish effectiveness:[8] The presiding officer always is taken into consideration for recognition in the chamber by judges (usually through ranking at the end of the session), and some tournaments have both the scorers and parliamentarian evaluate the presiding officer, while others just have one or the other do so.
The parliamentarian's role is a fairly passive one; their main purpose is to serve as a reference on parliamentary procedure in case there is confusion or a dispute the presiding officer cannot resolve.
Unless either the presiding officer makes (or fails to correct) a major error in procedure or else the debate gets bogged down the parliamentarian will generally not intervene in the proceedings unless asked by someone in the chamber.
[9] Like other forms of debate, it emphasizes clash of ideas, and consideration of questions of policy (bills) and value (resolutions).
In addition, Congress is now one of the official events at the debate Tournament of Champions, hosted by the University of Kentucky.