Legislation

In opposing these bills, we noted that harsh legislative restrictions on the rights of sex offenders are counterproductive and can promote recidivism by making it extremely difficult for them to reintegrate into the community.

Opposed by the ACLU, this legislation would have allowed Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) to attest to a patients’ mental health condition and participate in certifying patients for mandated outpatient treatment, an action which is presently something that only doctors can do.

This legislation would have provided a critical protection against housing discrimination based on a potential tenant’s source of income, an issue which particularly impacts tenants of color and those with disabilities.

While current regulations require school authorization for students to bring over-the-counter medication to school, we argue that students shouldn’t need permission from a school nurse to bring Tums or Midol on campus. These bills would have addressed this issue.

Similar to legislation introduced in previous years, this bill would have allowed a physician to request a hold on a substance-abusing patient and would have provided a process for a court hearing to determine if emergency commitment would be appropriate for the patient.

This legislation would have required software to take screenshots of a contractor’s computer every three minutes, which would have then been made available to the state in “real time” in order to verify a contractor’s billed hours.

We have long opposed legislative efforts to impose added qualifications for candidates to appear on the ballot in RI. For that reason, we opposed this legislation which would have required presidential candidates to publicly disclose their federal tax returns in order to be listed on the ballot.

Echoing a positive change made to the House Rules, the Senate Rules include the requirement for a minimum 24-hour advance posting of substitute bills up for consideration.

In a long overdue overhaul of the Open Meetings Act, this legislation would have strengthened language in the existing law and addressed technological advancements which have occurred since the OMA was last comprehensively amended two decades ago.