George Norris: Nebraska's Conscience in Congress

The modest white house on Norris Avenue in McCook, Nebraska, was home for forty years to one of the most consequential legislators in American history. Senator George W. Norris served Nebraska in Congress from nineteen oh three to nineteen forty-three, first in the House and then for thirty years in the Senate.

From this small-town base he reshaped the nation: he co-authored the Rural Electrification Act that brought power to farms across America, championed the Tennessee Valley Authority, sponsored the Twentieth Amendment abolishing the lame-duck session, and pushed through the Norris-LaGuardia Act protecting labor organizing. He also convinced Nebraskans to adopt their unique one-chamber Unicameral Legislature, the only such body among the fifty states. The house, built in eighteen ninety-nine, was donated to the Nebraska State Historical Society by his wife in nineteen sixty-eight.

Norris was a Republican who crossed party lines repeatedly to support progressive causes, and he is remembered as one of the five greatest senators in United States history.