Nebraska Unicameral

Nebraska State Legislature
Type
Type	Unicameral
Term limits	2 consecutive terms
History
New session started	January 4, 2017
Leadership
Speaker of the Legislature	Jim Scheer Since January 4, 2017
Structure
Seats	49
Political groups	Nonpartisan (49)
Length of term	4 years
Authority	Article III, Nebraska Constitution
Salary	$12,000/year + per diem
Elections
Last election	November 8, 2016 (25 seats)
Next election	November 6, 2018 (24 seats)
Redistricting	Legislative control
Website
Nebraska State Legislature

The Nebraska Legislature (also called "the Unicameral") is the supreme legislative body of the state of Nebraska. Its members are "senators." The legislature is officially unicameral and nonpartisan, making Nebraska unique among U.S. states; no other state has either a unicameral or a nonpartisan legislative body. With 49 members, it is also the smallest legislature of any U.S. state.

The First Nebraska Territorial Legislature met in Omaha in 1855, staying there until statehood was granted in 1867. 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.

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 non-democratic 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.