Legislation

The Senate thankfully did not vote on legislation that would require all non-governmental businesses to use the controversial and flawed E-Verify program to verify the work eligibility status of new hires.

The Senate has passed ACLU-proposed legislation that would codify into state law a consent agreement between the Rhode Island Department of Human Services and the federal government requiring appropriate language interpreter services for DHS clients.

Among other things, this bill shortens the timeframe for public bodies to respond to open records requests and requires training of public information officers on their APRA obligations.

After gutting the open records bill, the House added insult to injury by passing a bill that would keep secret, until the conclusion of grand jury proceedings, names of police officers involved in fatal shootings of civilians.

Continuing an unfortunate trend over the years, the House of Representatives decided this session to further cut-off public access to the House floor before sessions begin.

The House has passed legislation to require photo identification of voters at the polls. The Affiliate and other civil rights groups lobbied against its passage.

Two separate pieces of voting rights legislation have been approved by the Senate.

In response to the ACLU’s successful court case on behalf of the Moderate Party of RI, a bill was introduced to reduce from 5% to 1% the percentage of signatures required for a group to qualify for political party status.

The Senate steered clear of a troubling State Police proposal passed by the House. The bill would have given law enforcement agencies broad authority to secretly obtain, without a warrant, subscriber information from Internet service providers.