Hansell explains bill wording problem
By Terry Murry on Thursday, May 4th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
SALEM – Oregon Senate Republicans staged what they called a constitutional protest, walking out enough members to deny a quorum for the Senate. At issue is the readability of the bills being considered by the Senate. In 1979, a bill was signed into law that requires bills to have a readability level of 60 or higher, with that 60 encompassing eighth to 10th grade reading levels on the Flesch Kincaid reading assessment.
Senators in the Republican party have been demanding the bills that score lower than 60 be returned to their sponsors for rewriting and reconsideration. Sen. Bill Hansell (R-Athena) said the request to obey the Senate Rules, Oregon statutes, and Oregon Constitution just applies to bills not yet acted upon by the Senate.
“We’re not saying at all that we need to go clear back to every bill that was passed and check them out,” he said. “We’re just moving forward.”
Hansell did not walk out. He had an excused absence from the Senate because he is accompanying Gov. Tina Kotek on her tour of Morrow, Umatilla, Union, and Wallowa counties, which are in his district. Hansell said senators ran several bills through the Flesch Kincaid reading assessment in the past few days and only one of them met the legal requirement.
For more information about the reading assessment, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readability_tests.
