Secretary in name only?
By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
But the Rhode Island Senate has not yet confirmed Pryor as state commerce secretary, more than seven months after Gov. Dan McKee’s nomination. And questions linger over the legality of Pryor’s authority to act without legislative approval, including by the Senate’s own legal counsel.
“We don’t believe the statutory authority exists,” Greg Paré, a spokesperson for Senate President Valarie Lawson, said in an interview Wednesday.
John Marion, executive director for Common Cause Rhode Island, a nonpartisan watchdog group, voiced similar doubts during an initial confirmation hearing for Pryor before the Senate Committee on Commerce Tuesday night.
“Many department directors can serve on an interim basis, but commerce is not one of them,” Marion told the panel.
Marion referenced the state statute empowering the governor to fill cabinet-level vacancies on an interim basis until Senate confirmation. It lists 11 director roles as eligible for interim appointments, but not commerce secretary. And, it expressly prohibits anyone beyond the 11 named department directors from taking on the job on an interim basis.
The law doesn’t lay out consequences for interim directors who take the job before Senate confirmation. In Pryor’s case, the Senate is expected to give its blessing next week following the commerce committee’s vote Tuesday to advance the nomination.
Paré said the initial confirmation hearing was delayed due to scheduling issues, noting the commerce committee has only met once before this year, on March 10.
Concerns over Pryor’s ability to serve in the $238,597-a-year job before Senate confirmation surfaced in August, as first reported by Providence Business News. McKee’s office insisted, and still does, that the appointment was legitimate, pointing to past precedent and the governor’s constitutional authority.
“Directors of the various state agencies may start work upon appointment, subject to later confirmation by the Senate,” Claire Richards, executive counsel to the governor, said in an emailed statement Wednesday. “This has been the practice for decades. And with good reason: the continuous operation of governmental agencies is essential. From a Constitutional and practical perspective, the appointment of Secretaries is treated exactly like the directors whose work they oversee.”
Giselle Mahoney, a spokesperson for Rhode Island Commerce, did not directly address the legal concerns.
“Stefan very much respects the Senate and its advice and consent process,” Mahoney said in an emailed response Wednesday.
The executive and legislative branches are still at odds over the legitimacy of the interim appointment. But both offices are working on a solution. Forthcoming legislation would add commerce secretary to the list of department directors that the governor can appoint on an interim basis, Paré said.
Marion also recommended a closer look at state laws.
“We don’t raise this because we think Stefan Pryor or somebody else, shouldn’t be allowed to be named interim director for a really important job,” Marion said in an interview. “It’s that we think the Legislature needs to go back and look at the statutes and fix them, and create a system where the governor can make interim appointments when they are out of session.”
Awaiting that fix, however, Marion maintained that the state should not ignore its own laws.
“As long as the statute is on the books it should be enforced,” he said.
Upholding the binding rules of government holds particular significance amid a federal administration flouting the law by appointing leaders to the U.S. Attorney’s Office without U.S. Senate confirmation.
“We’re seeing at the federal level President Trump test the boundaries of this with U.S. attorneys, where he is not obeying the statutory scheme, and courts are pushing back,” Marin said. “We don’t want to see that behavior trickle down to the state level.”
Rolling back the tapes
Lawmakers’ scrutiny over Pryor on Tuesday focused not on the legality of his power, but his past record in state government. Pryor previously led the commerce agency from 2015 to 2022, and later went on to serve as state housing secretary from February 2023 to July 2024.
A New York native who was classmates with Gina Raimondo at Yale Law School in the 1990s, Pryor was among Raimondo’s first cabinet hires after she was elected governor in 2014.
During his eight years leading the state’s quasi-public economic development agency, he was tasked with helping lure big-name companies to Rhode Island through public subsidies, drawing praise from employers and business groups but sharp criticism from progressive advocates who disagreed with handing out big tax breaks to businesses and developers.
Among the most controversial deals inked during Pryor’s first round in Commerce: $36 million in state and local borrowing to help fund development of the Centreville Bank Stadium along the Pawetucket riverfront.
On Tuesday, Sen. Sam Bell, a Providence Democrat, asked Pryor to explain his macroeconomic strategy and which school of economic thought best aligned with his approach.
Pryor rescinded by talking about the importance of keeping tax burdens on business owners low and workers satisfied. As for his economic school of thought?
“At this moment, on issues of profound disruption to our economy like the advent of AI, I would actually point to our former governor, Gina Raimondo,” Pryor said. Raimondo recently authored a New York Times essay on how to address labor concerns amid changing technology.
When Bell sought a more direct answer to his question, Pryor doubled down.
“I’m comfortable with my response,” he said. “That’s my response.”
Also under the microscope was Pryor’s role as housing secretary. His appointment was meant to shore up and stabilize the nascent agency after the abrupt departure of its first leader, Josh Saal. Yet Pryor’s tenure also ended in scandal amid reports that he circumvented state procurement requirements by outsourcing payments to contractors through a private legal firm. The news was first reported by The Boston Globe Rhode Island.
Sen. Elaine Morgan, a Hopkinton Republican, asked Pryor Tuesday to address the “concerning” reports about his leadership.
Pryor on defense
Pryor said he was proud of his work with the housing department, explaining that the emergency nature of the work — shelters for unhoused people and redevelopment projects tied to time-limited federal funding — necessitated an unconventional, but not illegal, approach.
“When you don’t have such emergencies, you might not take that permitted route, but I thought it was the best way to get the job done,” he said.
When Pryor left state government in July 2024 for a private sector job, he wasn’t expecting to come back. But former Commerce Secretary Liz Tanner’s departure in June 2025 to take a job with a new nonprofit tied to the 2026 World Cup presented an opportunity he said he could not give up.
“I view it as my obligation, to the state that I love, to my home, to make sure we stay on track,” Pryor said.
He named federal tariffs, prolonged government shutdowns and international trade wars as potential risks to the Ocean State, which has so far remained shielded from whispers of a recession.
“On the whole, there are indicators of strength and stability,” Pryor said. “But we cannot rest on any laurels. We need to double down on our stability and strength.”
A handful of business and labor leaders spoke in support of Pryor, including Laurie White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce; Melissa Travis, CEO and president for the Rhode Island Manufacturers Association; and Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO. Crowley is also on the board of directors for Rhode Island Commerce.
Bell cast the sole “no” vote against Pryor’s nomination. Senate President Valarie Lawson and Senate Majority Leader Frank Ciccone also participated in the vote, exercising their ex-officio powers to sit on any standing chamber committee — a common practice during appointments for “high-profile” cabinet members, Paré said.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
- 5:03 pmUpdated to include a response from Gov. Dan McKee's office.
- 4:45 pmUpdated to include a response from Rhode Island Commerce.
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