Coming up in Committee: Twenty-Two Sets of Bills Scheduled to be Heard by the RI General Assembly, June 24 (Monday) – June 26
1. Three items from the “gun safety package”: {H5286/S0455} banning possession of firearms that have had their serial numbers removed; {H5991/S0860} making possession of a stolen firearm illegal, and increasing the penalty for using a firearm while committing a crime of violence; and {H5992/S0862} creating a “Behavioral Health and Firearms Safety Task Force”, i.e. a study commission. (H Judiciary; Mon, Jun 24 & S Judiciary; Tue, Jun 25)
2. H5205/S0041: Extends the current requirement that persons convicted of sexual and violent offenses provide DNA to be logged in a database, to a requirement that persons arrested for certain violent crimes or convicted of any felony do so. (H Judiciary; Mon, Jun 24)
3. S0992: Special exemption for the Providence Redevelopment Agency (but that strenuously avoids mentioning the agency by name) requiring that its permits for “new buildings for commercial or industrial uses contemplated by its redevelopment plan” be automatically granted. (H Municipal Government; Mon, Jun 24)
4. H5079 raises the minimum wage to eight dollars per hour and automatically increases it according to inflation, with an additional provision that it must always be $0.15 greater than the Federal minimum, while S0256 raises the minimum wage to eight dollars per hour, without the other provisions. (H Labor; Mon, Jun 24)
5. H6262: “State police, local police departments, and registry of motor vehicle enforcement personnel, upon observation of foreign registered vehicle present within the state for thirty (30) days or more shall identify the owner of the vehicle and, if a Rhode Island resident, provide a notice containing a copy of this section to the owner, and to the tax assessor in the city or town in which the vehicle is located”. (H Judiciary; Mon, Jun 24) Advocates for illegal immigrants and dealers of imported cars, don’t panic right away; I believe “foreign” in this context means from out-of-state.