Assembly breaks after midnight, to conclude business Thursday

By Steve Peoples, Randal Edgar, and Katherine Gregg
Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Racing to meet a self-imposed deadline to adjourn for the year, Rhode Island's General Assembly plowed through hundreds of proposed laws Wednesday on issues ranging from fireworks to wind farms during a chaotic session that stretched deep into the night.

But it became clear around midnight that lawmakers had abandoned any hope to conclude their business in one marathon session. The Senate was the first to announce the legislature's intent to break for the night and return Thursday to address a slate of high-profile issues left unresolved -- an education-funding formula, a wind farm, and a casino ballot question, among them.

"I made a commitment...We're not going to do this late night, half-asleep, important bills stuff," Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed told senators in a brief caucus just past midnight. "I know members are tired."

The announcement came as the House was wrapping up a three-hour debate on a single bill -- a proposal to set the Deepwater Wind offshore-turbine project back on course -- which was among countless bills that flowed through legislative committees and floor votes with little or no public notice Wednesday night.

Moments after gaveling the House to a close, House Speaker Gordon D. Fox took a phone call from Governor Carcieri, thanking him for the passage of the Deepwater provision.

Fox said the decision to come back on Thursday, rather than pushing through the night, was coordinated with the Senate.

"We have some significant issues, the school funding formula is first and foremost," he said. "I think that deserves a good debate in the light of day when people are awake, and it deserves that the public can see it in all its glory because I think it is going to be another defining moment for this legislative session."

The end-of-session late nights have become an annual ritual on Smith Hill as the part-time legislature eyes its summer recess. At least one lawmaker urged his colleagues to proceed with caution.

"Other senators and representatives must be much more agile than I am. In committee, I can't turn the pages fast enough to find the bills we are about to endorse...I have cast numerous votes without a clear understanding," Rep. Rod Driver, D-Richmond, wrote in an e-mail to his colleagues before Wednesday's session began. "My question is: What's the hurry? Why are we passing 100 bills per day in a rush order to adjourn this week? Am I the only one who can't keep up?"

Fox, asked in the afternoon why lawmakers were racing to adjourn, offered this response: "You know if you've served in this building, there's a time to go home. And we've reached the time to go home."

But it was not to be Wednesday night, as lawmakers now look to make Thursday night the last of the 2010 legislative session.

Wednesday's unexpected move leaves uncertain the fate of most bills, although several were likely headed toward a quiet death because legislative leaders would not allow a final vote.

A bill to reinstate the power of the state Ethics Commission topped the list of the nearly dead.

The House overwhelmingly approved the measure last week, but Senate leaders were not expected to allow a vote. Because a bill has to win approval in the House and Senate to become law, inaction would effectively kill the proposal that some argue is critical to improve the public's trust in their elected leaders.

"I don't know if it's critical, but it's important," said Fox, the sponsor of the House bill.
Specifically, the legislation would place a question on the November ballot asking voters whether to reinstate the Ethics Commission's power to investigate and prosecute state legislators who use their positions to benefit themselves, their relatives or their business associates.

The power was stripped by a state Supreme Court ruling last year.

Fox said there were "legitimate" concerns in the Senate.

"Whether we're going to discuss those and get that committed today and resolved, I'm not so sure. Whether I'm going to say we're going to stay here until we do, I'm not prepared to do that either," said Fox, who acknowledged he has some leverage to influence Senate action.

"There's a lot of other issues I need to press the Senate on in terms of funding formula and many other things that are equally, and some people would argue, are more important than [the ethics bill]."

The ethics bill was not expected to be the only casualty.

Lawmakers excluded various proposals introduced to help cities and towns cut costs. Local leaders, faced with a dramatic cut in state aid, had asked the Assembly to change state law to help them reduce pension and health-insurance costs, to name two.

Legislative leaders were thought to be on board.

"There were at least a dozen comments by leadership throughout the session that they were going to specifically address some of the tools. They never said all of them, but they said some of the tools," said Daniel L. Beardsley Jr., executive director of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns. "There were numerous references to 'they're right around the corner, they're not off the table.' I don't know what table there was, because there wasn't a table that contained any of the tools."

Nor did it appear the House would act on a Senate bill that would put a nonbinding question to voters this fall, asking if they want cities and towns to try and save money by consolidating or sharing services.

Also expected to die were two Senate bills that had backing from open-government advocates.

One bill would reduce the waiting period for routine open records requests from 10 to 7 days, require the police to provide arrest information within 24 hours of a request and clarify that narrative police arrest reports are public documents. The other would require House and Senate committee roll-call votes to be posted on the General Assembly Web site.

Both passed overwhelmingly in the Senate, but had not been posted on the House calendar.

The Senate also had not voted on a House bill that would have created a Boston Red Sox license plate to benefit Rhode Island charities associated with the team.

Likely to pass

While there was much uncertainty, some legislation survived Wednesday:

The Assembly sent to Governor Carcieri a proposal that would allow the sale, possession and transportation of "non-aerial fireworks" for anyone at least 16 years old. Currently, law prohibits Rhode Islanders from using fireworks.

Specifically, the new law would allow such things as "fountains, illuminating torches, wheels, ground spinners, flitter sparklers, sparklers" and "party poppers, snappers, toy smoke devices, snakes, glow worms, wire sparklers and dipped sticks."

Barring a gubernatorial veto, the new measure would become law next week, in time for the July 4 holiday.

Another bill expected to win Assembly approval would increase penalties for "habitual traffic offenders" following the recent death of 27-year-old Colin Foote.

The driver who struck and killed Foote had 27 moving-vehicle violations, including 13 speeding tickets, 3 for running red lights and 8 warnings.

The new law would affect anyone convicted of four moving violations within a two-year period. Those drivers would face fines of up to $1,000, 60 hours of community service, 60 hours of "driver retraining," and the loss of the license for a year.

Also passed was a bill that gives the state Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals a new name: the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals.

Governor Carcieri was among those who lobbied for the change earlier this year, saying the "R-word" is often used to "insult people, particularly those with intellectual and developmental disabilities."

And finally, the Assembly was poised to approve a measure that may block a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal project in Fall River.

The bill would adopt minimum clearance standards for large ships carrying hazardous materials under the state's bridges. Sponsored by Rep. Douglas W. Gablinske, D-Bristol, and Sen. Walter S. Felag, Jr., D-Warren, the proposal would effectively ban LNG tankers from traveling up Narragansett Bay into Mount Hope Bay by requiring them to clear state bridges by a height that's currently impossible under the Mount Hope Bridge.