Legislature of Guam
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Legislature of Guam Liheslaturan Guåhan |
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Vice Speaker
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Political groups
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Government
Opposition
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Last election
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November 8, 2016 |
Government
Opposition
The Legislature of Guam (Liheslaturan Guåhan in Chamorro) is the legislature for the United States territory of Guam. The legislative branch is unicameral, with a single house consisting of fifteen senators, each serving for a two-year term. All members of the legislature are elected at-large. After the enactment of the Organic Act, the First Guam Legislature was elected in 1950. The current 34th Guam Legislature (Chamorro: I Mina' Trentai Kuåttro Na Liheslaturan Guåhan) was elected in November 2016.
The Guam Legislature meets in the territorial capital of Hagåtña (formerly Agana). The current legislature building is located at 155 Hesler Place.
During the Spanish colonial era, lasting roughly from the 1670s until 1898, Guam was provided with no colonial legislature. All political decisions on the island were left to a Madrid appointed governor, who, until 1817, reported to the Viceroy of New Spain in Mexico. Due to New Spain's distance from Guam and the speed of transportation of the times, Guam's leadership often took matters into its own hands. During the Mexican War of Independence, when Spain increasingly saw New Spain falling through its grip, Madrid transferred Guam's political authority to the Governor of Manila, and after 1821, fully to the Spanish Philippines.
Spain lost Guam during the 1898 Spanish–American War in a bloodless invasion. For the next forty years, the United States Navy assumed executive control of the island, treating it more as a military outpost than an overseas territory, with little to no civilian say in the island's affairs. Governor Captain Willis Winter Bradley instituted the Guam Congress during the 1930s as an elected advisory body to the naval governor. On December 8, 1941, Imperial Japanese forces invaded Guam, beginning a three-year occupation of the island. The island was eventually retaken in 1944 during the intense Battle of Guam.
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Wikipedia