Seventeen Sets of Bills Scheduled to be Heard by RI General Assembly Committees, April 12 - April 14, Numbers 1 through 5

5. S0760: "No person holding a position in state government which requires confirmation by or the advice and consent of the senate shall engage in lobbying or permitted to register as a lobbyist" aka "a Caruolo Act for the 21st-Century". (Senate Judiciary, April 12).

4B. S0823: Ethics Commission appointments would be subject to advice and consent of the Senate. (Senate Judiciary, April 12).

4A. H5410/S0634: Constitutional Amendment to bring state legislators under Ethics Commission jurisdiction. (House Judiciary, April 13; Senate Judiciary, April 12).

3. H6017: If I am reading this right, this bill says that if a business replaces a union contractor with a non-union contractor after the completion of a contract, the employees of the new contractor are forced to join the union that was there previously. (House Labor, April 13).

2B. H5873: Requires all cities and towns to participate in the "secure communities" program. (House Judiciary, April 13).

2A. H5312/H5225: H5312 requires participation in E-Verify by all Rhode Island employers with 3 or more employees. H5225 would prohibit use of an "electronic employment verification system" as a condition of receiving a government contract or maintaining a business license. They are not sponsored by the same group of Reps. (House Labor, April 12).

1. Bud Art 26: Governor Chafee's sales-tax expansion. (House Finance, April 13 @ 11:00 AM! -- an excellent time for professional activists and the unemployed to have unfettered access to the Finance Committee).