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The Nebraska Legislature (sometimes referred to as "the Unicameral")〔http://nebraskalegislature.gov/about/about.php〕 is the supreme legislative body of the State of Nebraska, in the Great Plains region of the United States. The Legislature meets at the Nebraska State Capitol in the City of Lincoln, Lancaster County. Nebraska's Legislature is unique in that it is both unicameral and nonpartisan; no other U.S. state has a single-chamber legislative body or a non-partisan legislature. However, the legislatures of two U.S. territories—the Virgin Islands and Guam—are unicameral. The Council of the District of Columbia is also unicameral; however, the United States Congress retains ultimate authority over the District and can overrule acts passed by its Council. At 49 members, the Nebraska Legislature is also the smallest state legislature (the next smallest is the 60-member bicameral Alaska Legislature). == History == The First Nebraska Territorial Legislature met in Omaha in 1855, staying there until statehood was granted in 1867.〔("More about Nebraska statehood, the location of the capital, and the story of the commissioner's homes" ), Nebraska State Historical Society. Retrieved 12/14/08.〕 Nebraska originally operated under a bicameral legislature, but over time dissatisfaction with the bicameral system grew. Bills were lost because the two houses could not agree on a single version. Conference committees that formed to merge the two bills coming out of each chamber often met in secret, and thus were unaccountable for their actions. Campaigns to consolidate the Nebraska Legislature into a single chamber date back as early as 1913, meeting with mixed success.〔(【引用サイトリンク】author=Michael S. Dulaney, J.D., Ph.D., Executive Director, Nebraska Council of School Administrators ) 〕 After a trip to Australia in 1931, George Norris, then U.S. Senator for Nebraska, campaigned for reform, arguing that the bicameral system was based on the inherently undemocratic British House of Lords, and that it was pointless to have two bodies of people doing the same thing and hence wasting money. He specifically pointed to the example of the Australian state of Queensland, which had adopted a unicameral parliament nearly ten years before. In 1934, voters approved a constitutional amendment to take effect with the 1936 elections, abolishing the House of Representatives and granting its powers to the Senate. The amendment was based on a bill to establish a unicameral legislature that had been introduced years earlier by Nebraska legislator and later U.S. Congressman John Nathaniel Norton. Many possible reasons for the 1934 amendment's victory have been advanced: the popularity of George Norris, a fervent proponent of single-chamber government; the Depression-era desire to cut costs; public dissatisfaction with the previous year's legislature; or even the fact that, by chance, it was on the ballot in the same year as an amendment to legalize parimutuel betting on horse races. This latter coincidence may have aided the measure's passage in Omaha, where the unicameral issue was not a pressing one but horse racing was. (Gambling interests campaigned for "yes" votes on all amendments in hopes of assuring the horse-racing amendment's passage.) The new unicameral Legislature met for the first time in 1937. Though the name of the body is formally the "Nebraska Legislature", its members are commonly referred to as "senators". In Nebraska, the Legislature is also often known as "the Unicameral". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nebraska Legislature」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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