Coming up in Committee: Thirteen Sets of Bills Scheduled to be Heard by the RI General Assembly, June 14 - June 16

Here's your warm-act for the presentation of the budget. Note that at the time of this post, there are no committee meetings scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

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13. H6104/H6222: Changes in regulations regarding distributed generation of electricity from renewable sources. (Senate Environment and Agriculture, June 15)

12. Traffic law changes, including making seat-belt violations a primary offense (S0022), license revocation for two years for "leaving the scene of an accident resulting in serious bodily injury" (S0027), and a ban on the use of non-hands free cell phones by minors while driving (S0346). (Senate Judiciary, June 14)

11. H6188: "Notwithstanding any state law, resolution, rule, regulation or code to the contrary, the city of Pawtucket may use money in its Fire Prevention Fund and its Cemetery Perpetual Care Fund for deficit reduction purposes in Fiscal Year 2011". (House Finance, June 14)

10. Three bills from the department of I wonder exactly who it is that they have in mind: "No individual or entity shall own or have an interest in an entity or entities that own more than twenty-five percent (25%) of the boat slips located in the State of Rhode Island" (H6203, House Corporations, June 14); a bill keeping some old rules for judicial nominations in place for another year (S0686, Senate Judiciary, June 14); and a bill requiring sellers of "tools or electronic equipment readily identifiable with a serial number" in Rhode Island to have a license from the Attorney General. (H5807, House Judiciary, June 15)

9. H5161: Several changes to campaign finance law, including making the qualifying rules for matching funds for independent candidates identical to those for party candidates, and the elimination of a section of the law entitling candidates who comply with the public financing of election campaigns "to accept a contribution or contributions that in the aggregate do not exceed two thousand dollars ($2,000) from any person or political action committee within a calendar year". The official description of the bill describes this last section as the removal of a limit. (House Finance, June 14)

8. S0289: Subjects the appointment of the state education commissioner to the advice and consent of the Senate. (Senate Education, June 14)

7. S0658: According to the official description, "this act would allow the family court judge who finds a minor delinquent for the commission of a gang-related offense to order the minor's parents or guardian to attend anti-gang violence parenting classes". (Senate Judiciary, June 14)

6. H5276: A pilot project for "Patient Centered Medical Homes". This bill appears to be founded on the assumption that system failures created by regulation can be fixed by piling new regulations on top of the broken ones. (Senate Health and Human Services, June 15)

5D. S0399: Moves-up vaarious deadlines in the process of qualifying for a Presidential primary. (House Judiciary, June 15)

5C. S0341/H5661: Polling hours in every place in RI not named "New Shoreham" would be between 7am and 8pm. (Currently, polls close at 9pm, with opening times that vary by community. New Shoreham polls would open at 9am under both the old and the new law). (House Judiciary, June 15)

5B. S0924: Establishes the electoral reapportionment commission for Rhode Island (House Finance, June 14)

5A. H6176: A study commission on a system for determining "the winner of [an] election by majority vote" including but not limited to "instant runoff voting, approval voting, range voting, and proportional voting". (Senate Judiciary, June 14)

4. S0867: Requires all Rhode Island hospitals to submit "evidence of participation in a high-quality comprehensive discharge planning and transitions improvement project operated by a nonprofit organization in this state" or "a plan for the provision of comprehensive discharge planning and information to be shared with patients transitioning from the hospitals care" to the director of the state department of health. (House Health, Education and Welfare, June 15)

3. H5644: Creates a new section of the law regarding "crimes against the public trust", including sections on "bribery in official and political matters", "selling political endorsements", "speculating or wagering on official action or information" and "theft of honest services", as well as the creation of a "public corruption and white collar crime unit". Introduced at the request of the Attorney General. (House Finance, June 14)

2. S0483: Changes the scope of the "Teachers' Health Insurance Board" -- half of whose membership is appointed by directly by labor organizations -- from being able to impose binding rules on elected school committees, to a purely advisory capacity. (House Health, Education and Welfare, June 15)

1. H6052: Would limit the powers of a municipal receiver to those powers "related specifically to the fiscal stability of the city or town", and would prohibit a receiver from "from preventing or prohibiting a city or town's elected officials or city or town manager, or administrator from conducting their ordinary and customary duties with respect to the daily operation of the city or town". (House Finance, June 14)