This includes four main parts: plan, inherency, advantages, and solvency.

Team Policy: Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially reform its marine natural resource policies. Lincoln-Douglas: Resolved: The United States has a moral obligation to mitigate international conflicts.

Solvency is a stock issue in policy debate, referring to the effectiveness of the affirmative plan or the negative counterplan in solving the harms or problems of the status quo.

It is also referred to as cross-examination debate (sometimes shortened to Cross-X or CX) because of the 3-minute questioning period following each constructive speech.

Policy debate is an American form of debate competition in which teams of two usually advocate for and against a resolution that typically calls for policy change by the United States federal government.

Policy Debate involves the proposal of a plan by the affirmative team to enact a policy, while the negative team offers reasons to reject that proposal. Throughout the debate, students have the opportunity to cross-examine one another. A judge or panel of judges determines the winner based on the arguments presented.

Advantage The advantage is the benefit the affirmative claims from solving their harm through their plan. For example, affirmatives could claim that increasing exploration of the ocean prevents pollution. Affirmative The side in the debate that affirms the resolution.