Easier to engage with Rhode Island’s legislative process. See changes. State of the State this week.

The House and the Senate will return to the State House Tuesday to begin the 2024 legislative session. With many practical issues that could impact Rhode Islanders either personally with family, education and children or professionally with business regulations and opportunities, make this the year you will engage in the process. Submit testimony. Attend a hearing. Follow developments on zoom or on your television or streaming service.

The RI Legislature seems to want to help with this by easing the difficulty in finding out information about bills, hearings, and the legislative process. With a brand new website and easily accessible information, here is what you need to know to be more informed than ever before.

Both the House and the Senate had their first meetings on January 2nd, in their chambers, which are on the 2nd floor of the State House. Each chamber held a regular legislative session following brief remarks by chamber leaders. Both sessions were broadcast by Capitol Television.

Now, the Senate plans to meet weekly on Thursdays at 4 p.m. The House will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4 p.m.

A refreshed General Assembly website has been debuted.

Several frequently used pages have been redesigned to create a better organized and easier to navigate website. This update was done to improve the website’s functionality while continuing to be informative, useful and transparent. A longer-term overhaul to further improve the site will be done in stages with additional improvements coming out in 2024.

“Our new website is aesthetically cleaner and easier to navigate. Our focus is to improve the website and make it easier for Rhode Islanders to engage with their Legislature,” said House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio. “We think this site offers significant enhancements that will greatly benefit members of the public. This is the first major website update in decades.”

Visitors to the refurbished site, www.RILegislature.gov, will be greeted by a home page that looks cleaner and is more functional, especially in regards to the streaming and on-demand video portion of the site, now designed by Tightrope Media Systems.

A huge advantage of the site will be a direct link to everything Capitol TV broadcasts – complete with closed captioning and better organization of content.

A dynamic calendar section on the front page enables visitors to find information on legislative sessions, committees and commission meetings. A new “Getting Started” page provides a guide and video on the General Assembly, including:

Legislative schedules

How to track legislation

Ways to participate in the legislative process

New pages about the Senate and House membership provide an improved interface, making it easier than ever to find each legislator’s biography, contact information, news, and photos.

Work to improve the entirety of the website is ongoing, and input from the public is welcome. Visitors will find a link on the home page to provide suggestions.

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Priorities of the House and Senate

The Speaker of the House, Rep. Shekarchi – and the Senate President, Sen. Ruggerio, have released their initial priorities:

§  Speaker lists housing, environment, health care access as top priorities
Speaker of the House K. Joseph Shekarchi (D-Dist. 23, Warwick) began the 2024 term by outlining a legislative agenda that will continue last session’s work to combat the state’s affordable housing crisis and safeguard the Rhode Island’s environment. He also highlighted access to healthcare as a primary focus of the upcoming session, and commended his fellow house members for their decorum and hard work, especially the chairs of the 12 house commissions who continued to work while the legislature was out of session.

§  Senate President includes health care, TCI expansion among top priorities
As the Senate began its 2024 legislative session, Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio (D-Dist. 4, North Providence, Providence) pledged that strengthening health care — including attracting qualified primary care physicians, bolstering community hospitals and addressing Medicaid rates — reforming the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights and expanding Temporary Caregiver Insurance will be among his leadership team’s highest priorities this year.

Governor McKee’s State of the State

It all starts in earnest this week with Governor McKee presenting the annual State of the State address. This should be a critical address as Rhode Island moves off of a flush budget with COVID funding to a much more conservative budget – but with emerging needs presenting themselves, such as massive flooding and infrastructure needs.

The event will be held on Tuesday night, January 16th, at 7pm. It will be televised by Capitol TV on Cox Communications channels 15 and 61 for high definition, i3Broadband (Full Channel) on 15 and Verizon on channel 34. Livestreaming is available on the Capitol TV website. It will also be livestreamed on the Governor’s Facebook page. A simultaneous Spanish translation will be available on the Governor’s Spanish-language Facebook page.

This week at the RI Legislature

As an example of activities happening at the RI State House, here is a summary published by the legislature for the week ahead:

Here are the highlights from news and events that took place in the General Assembly this week. For more information on any of these items visit http://www.rilegislature.gov/pressrelease

§  President Ruggerio, Speaker Shekarchi announce hearings on St. Mary’s Home

Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio (D-Dist. 4, North Providence, Providence) and House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi (D-Dist. 23, Warwick) issued statements expressing their deep concern over the serious issues discovered in the Child Advocate’s report of St. Mary’s Home for Children and announcing that both Senate and House oversight hearings will begin shortly. “Protecting our most vulnerable children, and ensuring they have access to essential treatment and services in our state, remains an absolute top priority for me and the entire Senate,” said President Ruggerio.

Click here to see news release.

§  Corvese bill would create open primaries 

Rep. Arthur Corvese (D-Dist. 55, North Providence) has introduced legislation to establish open primaries for state and municipal elections to ensure that the candidates who take office are supported by a majority of voters. Under the bill (2024-H 7117), the party primary system would be replaced with a “general primary” in which all declared candidates are listed. The top two vote-getters in the primary for each office would then face off in the general election. 

Click here to see news release.

§  McNamara looks to get Warwick representation on Airport Corporation board
Rep. Joseph M. McNamara (D-Dist. 19, Warwick, Cranston) has introduced legislation that would require Warwick representation on the Rhode Island Airport Corporation Board of Directors. The bill (2024-H 7069) would require that one of the seven directors of the Rhode Island Airport Corporation be appointed by the mayor of Warwick with the advice and consent of the Rhode Island Senate.
Click here to see news release.

§  Edwards bill would prohibit development of Sapowet Marsh Management Area
Rep. John G. Edwards (D-Dist. 70, Tiverton) has introduced legislation (2024-H 7060) that would protect the Sapowet Marsh Management Area in Tiverton and prohibit any commercial development on the 296-acre salt marsh. The bill would designate the area as open space to be utilized only for passive outdoor recreation.
Click here to see news release.

§  Euer appointed to EPA advisory committee

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Dawn Euer (D-Dist. 13, Newport, Jamestown) was appointed to the Local Government Advisory Committee of the Environmental Protection Agency, an independent committee that advises the EPA administrator on specific environmental questions or topics that critically impact local government. For the first time in the committee’s history, women hold a majority of membership seats and all of the committee’s leadership positions.
Click here to see news release.

§  Senators take part in White House event on investments in Rhode Island

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Louis P. DiPalma (D-Dist. 12, Middletown, Newport, Little Compton, Tiverton), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Dawn Euer (D-Dist. 13, Newport, Jamestown), Sen. Pamela J. Lauria (D-Dist. 32, Barrington, Bristol, East Providence) and Sen. Victoria Gu (D-Dist. 38, Westerly, Charlestown, South Kingstown) took part in a White House event highlighting the impacts of major federal investments being made in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Click here to see news release for Aquidneck Island/East Bay senators.

Click here to see news release for Senator Gu.

Make 2024 the year you get involved in the legislative process – the year you send letters – or make testimony of your own – or talk about the issues with your family, friends, and colleagues. If you can’t watch key events on Capitol TV, go back to it, most of them stay on the website – or record them. Speaker Shekarchi has urgently requested that each legislator submit no more than 15 bills each – not that they will stick with that, but if they did, that number is somewhat staggering. Use the new website and encourage others to do so. Watch the State of the State this week.