NAACP grades Congress

by: Hopeful

Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 03:32:12 PM EST

On Wednesday, February 3 the NAACP released its annual Congressional Legislative Report Card, an evaluation of the voting records of Congressional members on NAACP agenda issues. The NAACP has graded the U.S. Congress on the "bread and butter" civil rights agenda since 1914. The report card provides a non-partisan assessment of the first session of the 111th Congress, and is designed to provide NAACP members with insight into the general voting patterns of congressional representatives and state delegations.

Here's the PDF of full report.

Both Senators Lautenberg and Menendez scored 100% for an A grade. Here are our Representatives, sorted by score:

Andrews  100%   A
Rothman  100%  A
Payne      100%  A
Pallone      96%  A
Pascrell      96%  A
Holt           96%  A
Sires          96%  A
Adler         84% B
Smith        64% D
LoBiondo   56%  F
Lance        48%  F
Frelinghuysen  32% F
Garrett       8%   F

Obviously there's a big difference between Frank LoBiondo's 56% and Scott Garrett's astonishing 8%. The grades are probably also a good general ranking of progressives. If you are wondering, Holt missed a vote to get 96%, while the other three 96% scores are due to not voting for an alternative Congressional Black Caucus budget resolution. Adler's B is due to the same vote plus his votes against health care reform.