NFHS EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING TOPICS

November 2022

Domestic

Closed-Ended

1. Will President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program have a significant impact on the American economy?

2. Can health professionals expect Americans to take the Omicron variant COVID-19 booster at sufficient levels to make an impact?

3. Will there be criminal charges brought in the Georgia 2020 voting system breach investigation?

4. Is the January 6th Committee’s subpoena of President Trump purely a symbolic gesture?

5. Does President Biden have the political capital to control rising drug prices?

6. Will the Justice Department succeed in bringing an end to the Special Master’s role in the investigation of files found at Mar-a-Lago?

7. Can the United States’ supply of vehicle charging stations keep pace with the expanding electric vehicle market?

8. Has the CIA mishandled the Havana Syndrome investigation?

9. Does the United States have sufficient resources to protect the health and safety of immigrants crossing the southern border?

10. Will the Federal Reserve’s policy succeed in calming inflation?

11. Can the Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment protect senior citizens from the impact of inflation?

12. Should Google and Apple block downloads of the Truth Social application on their app stores?

13. Does NASA's DART mission prove that we can protect ourselves from near-earth asteroids?

Open-Ended

1. Learning from Adnan Syed’s vacated murder conviction, what can Baltimore police do to improve their investigative procedures?

2. How will the decision of a Florida jury not to assign the death penalty to Nikolas Cruz shape the future advocacy of victims’ families?

3. What steps can the United States Secret Service take to address their officers’ involvement with extremist groups?

4. What role has the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion had on the Midterm elections?

5. How will the outcome of the Midterm elections influence Donald Trump’s decision-making about a future presidential candidacy?

6. How will Democrats’ performance in the Midterm elections influence Joe Biden’s decision about running for reelection?

7. What changes, if any, can we expect in congressional leadership after the Midterm elections?

8. What strategies should American schools employ to address COVID pandemic learning loss?

9. How will the controversy over racist comments by Los Angeles City Council members shape the future of politics within the Latino community there?

10. Why are more members of Congress choosing not to pursue reelection?

11. What can the United States do to increase domestic production of microchips?

12. How will the judgment against Alex Jones impact the behavior of other controversial media figures?

International

Closed-Ended

1. Is Rwanda a good partner for nations seeking to find temporary housing for refugees, given its human rights record?

2. Will the United States’ agreement with 14 Pacific island nations succeed in countering Chinese influence in the region?

3. Should the Biden administration ease its sanctions on Venezuela?

4. Do October protests against the government of Xi Jinping indicate more public opposition lurking below the surface?

5. Is Russia losing influence over former Soviet Central Asian republics?

6. Is Liz Truss’s administration in Britain already in danger of collapsing?

7. Can Aleksander Lukashenko keep Belarus out of the fight in Ukraine?

8. Will Russian military leaders block any effort by Putin to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine?

9. Should NATO supply Ukraine with missiles that can strike inside Russia?

10. Can Germany stay on target to eliminate the use of coal by 2030?

11. Will Iranian security forces succeed in suppressing public uprisings there?

12. Will the election of a new President bring more stability to Iraq’s government?

13. Is Saudi Arabia distancing itself from its historic alliance with the United States?

Open-Ended

1. Why did United States efforts to broker a peace settlement in Ethiopia fail?

2. What can the World Health Organization do to help Uganda contain its Ebola outbreak?

3. What must the Australian government do to succeed in its goal of ending all species extinction within its borders?

4. What steps should Mexico take to help protect migrants seeking to cross into the United States?

5. What will be the outcome of the Canadian inquiry into Prime Minister Trudeau’s use of emergency powers to respond to the trucker’s strike?

6. What influence do former leaders of China have on the rule of Xi Jinping?

7. Given their prior silence, why are India and China now calling for de-escalation of the war in Ukraine?

8. What can western European nations do to create greater energy independence from Russia?

9. How will the agreement between Lebanon and Israel over their maritime border impact the Lebanese economy?

10. How will production reductions among OPEC member nations impact the global economy?

11. How will the ascension of King Charles to the throne impact the movement to make Australia a republic?

12. What must Thailand do to win its newly declared “War on Drugs”?