Throwback Thursday Photo, Nebraska’s Last Bi-Cameral Legislature

50th and last bi-cameral Nebraska Legislature, 1935 (RG2141.PH000041-000004)

Today is the second day of the second session of the 105th Nebraska Legislature. Today’s #ThrowbackThursday photo features the fiftieth and last bi-cameral session of the Nebraska Legislature in 1935.

In the early 1930s, Nebraska U.S. Senator George Norris promoted the concept of the non-partisan, one-house legislature called the Unicameral. He believed that a one-house system would curb abuses of the conference committee which had allowed the majority party to rewrite legislation to favor its own positions.

In 1934, Nebraska voters enthusiastically endorsed the idea and in 1937 Nebraska became the first and only state to have a unicameral legislature.

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