Nebraska Legislature
The Nebraska Legislature is the supreme legislative of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The parliamentarians meet in the Nebraska State Capitol in the capital Lincoln, Lancaster County.
Nebraska is the only U.S. state that has unicameral and is in the allowed no party affiliation ( " Nonpartisan "). No other state in the United States has only one chamber of parliament, although having the legislatures of two U.S. territories, Virgin Islands and Guam, and the Council of the District of Columbia also unicameral.
Historical Development
The state of Nebraska was originally a two-chamber system. However, the deficiencies of this system are evident with time. Bills went under, because the two chambers could not agree on a common version. Furthermore, the advisory committees that have been created had to bring the different versions under one roof, meet in silence, which was intolerable for doing so. After a short trip to Australia in 1931, George W. Norris made for a reform strongly, arguing that the bicameral principle based on the undemocratic British House of Lords and that it was to have two chambers nonsense, where people do the same and therefore would be wasting money. He referred specifically to the Australian state of Queensland, which had nearly ten years earlier adopted a unicameral parliament. 1934 voters voted for a constitutional amendment, where the House of Representatives was dissolved and all its powers were transferred to the Senate.
Campaigns that promoted that the Nebraska Legislature should unite to form a unicameral, already go back to 1913, but showed only a moderate success. There were many possible reasons for the adoption of the constitutional amendment of 1934: the popular U.S. Senator from Nebraska, George Norris, who was a keen proponent of the single-; the world economic crisis, which mustered the desire to reduce costs; the general dissatisfaction with the previous annual legislatures; or even the fact that in the same year was to be found on the ballot the addition that horse racing would be legalized. The last straw that broke the camel's crowded, probably was the point in Omaha, where the horse racing was more urgent than the unicameral. ( Gaming enthusiasts made for a passage of rectification concerning the horse racing strongly, by voting for all Amendment to the Constitution with "Yes". )
The new Einkammerlegislative came together for the first time in 1937. Although the name of the chamber of parliament formally " Nebraska Legislature ", their deputies are commonly referred to as " Senators ". In Nebraska, the legislature is also often referred to as "The Unicameral " known.
Structure of the chamber
The chamber of parliament is made up of 49 members, representing an electoral district respectively. The senators are elected for four -year terms. Furthermore, the terms of office are staggered so that always half of the deputies are elected every two years. It may be senators only those registered voters are over 21 years and have lived for at least the last year in their election district. Currently, the term of office of a senator is limited to two terms. A senator earns $ 12,000 a year.
Deputies are selected in nonpartisan elections. Actually kept as independent primaries to select Republicans, Democrats and other party goers for a seat, Nebraska uses a single code, go in which the two strongest candidates for the race in the general election. There is no formal orientation or party group within the legislature. Coalitions rather tend to conjure up a dispute that is based on the philosophy of government MPs, the geographical background and the constituency. However, all members of the legislature either the Democratic or Republican Party almost connected and both parties clearly support candidates for Legislativsitze.
The Nebraska Legislature holds in an odd year to 90 working days meetings and in an even year to 60 working days. In the absence of the Vice- Governor of the Speaker of the House stands (since 2007 Mike Flood ) in front of the plenary sessions, however, the Executive Committee deals with the everyday affairs. The committee consists of the Speaker, a chairman, a deputy chairman and six other senators. The chairman and vice chairman are elected by the entire legislature for a two -year terms. The senators are classified into three geographically -based " caucuses ", each of the caucus then elects two members of the Committee. The chairman of the Appropriations Committee shall not vote, but may speak on tax matters.
General Power of Attorney
The Legislature is responsible for legislation in the state, but the governor of Nebraska has the power to appeal against any bill veto. The legislature may then cancel with only a three fifths majority the veto of the Governor, ie 30 MPs have to agree with this. Furthermore, the legislature has the power to propose by a three - fifths majority constitutional amendments by the voters who decide in a referendum.