Political Notebook

A dumbing down of Congress?

The Sunlight Foundation released a report today that finds the gradel level of congressional speeches has dropped from a high of 11.5 grade in 2005 to 10.6 grade level. It also analyzes what grade level members of Congress are speaking at when they take to the floor.

The researchers analyzed the complete Congressional Record since 1996 They used the Flesch-Kincaid test to do the analysis, which equates higher-grade levels with longer words and longer sentences.The member of Minnesota's congressional delegation with the lowest score was 5th District DFL Rep. Keith Ellison of Minneapolis with a 9.3 grade level. Taking the top spot was 4th District DFL Rep. Betty McCollum from St. Paul. Below are the scores for the entire Minnesota congressional delegation from lowest to highest.

DFL Rep. Keith Ellison: 9.3

GOP. Rep. Michele Bachmann: 9.52

DFL Sen. Al Franken: 9.98

DFL Rep. Tim Walz: 10.06

DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar: 10.24

DFL Rep. Collin Peterson: 10.41

GOP Rep. John Kline: 11.09

GOP Rep. Chip Cravaack: 11.17

GOP. Rep. Erik Paulsen: 11.93

DFL Rep. Betty McCollum: 12.71

Walz and Paulsen urge Dayton to sign bill lifting nuke ban

DFL Congressman Tim Walz and  GOP Congressman Erik Paulsen sent Gov. Mark Dayton a letter today urging him to sign a bill that would repeal the state's ban on building new nuclear plants. In the letter, the two congressman argue that nuclear power needs to be part of the state's energy future.

The letter cites a survey saying that 70 percent of Americans favor nuclear energy and on average a nuclear plant created 1,400 to 1,800 high-paying jobs during construction and 400 to 700 jobs once the plant is in operation. It also states that Minnesota's two nuclear plant helped the state avoid releasing 13 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

"Repealing this antiquated public policy would allow the state to consider a range of factors in reaching decisions on building new nuclear plants, such as used nuclear fuel management and the financial impact on ratepayers," the letter states.

Walz and Paulsen also argue that scrapping the ban would help bring attention to the nuclear waste issue and allow for a "robust debate." Click here to Download Paulsen-Walz Letter to Dayton

Dayton has said he will only support lifting the ban if it will not create additional nuclear waste, includes protections for ratepayers and prohibits reprocessing the spent nuclear fuel to make weapons-grade plutonium.

Both the House and Senate approved bills lifting the ban.  A conference committee is working to hash out the differences between the two bills. The measure would then come back for a final vote before the House and Senate before heading to Dayton's desk.