Local Democratic women legislators use the budget to get good legislation passed
By Will Collette
While some may call this cheating, it is a time-honored method of getting bills passed that might otherwise fail, either because they are low-visibility or easily defeated by opposing lobbyists.
The US Congress uses what they call the "reconciliation" process to accomplish this, most recently when Republicans used it to pass a full funding for ICE immigration thuggery. Generally, this procedural device can only be used for issues that involve direct spending.
I used it once when I worked in DC as staff director for the Citizens Coal Council. Our priority legislation aimed to protect and compensate people when their water is threatened by underground coal mining. The coal industry blocked this bill when it stood on its own but couldn't stop it from passage when we got it into the federal budget.
Reps. Tanzi and Cotter, and Sen. DiMario had news releases sent out to describe the measures they inserted into the budget. The following summaries are taken from those news releases.
Tanzi and the audit of RIPTA
Rep. Teresa A. Tanzi’s proposals to conduct an independent efficiency and performance audit of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation and to allow the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority board to elect its own chair were included in the amended budget bill approved by a vote of the full House of Representatives Friday, June 5.....
The budget (2026-H 7127Aaa) includes an audit of the efficiency and performance of RIDOT to be conducted by the Office of Internal Audit and Program Integrity of the Rhode Island Department of Administration...Earlier this year an investigation found that Rhode Island ranked dead last in percentage of state roads in poor condition...
The budget also includes a provision that rather than having the RIDOT director serve as chair, the RIPTA board shall elect its own chair, as Representative Tanzi proposed in her bill (2026-H 8127). The budget goes further and forbids the director from serving as chair of the board, though they will remain a member...
And Rep. Tanzi bills to invest in RI children and families
Rep. Teresa A. Tanzi is applauding the inclusion of her proposals to create a refundable child tax credit and to extend the period of eligibility for early intervention programs for infants and children with disabilities in the amended budget bill approved by a vote of the full House of Representatives Friday, June 5...
The budget (2026-H 7127Aaa) includes a new refundable tax credit of
$330 per child in addition to the existing dependent exemption. This will
provide at least as much relief to parents as the $325 per child tax credit
proposed in the governor’s budget and, when combined with the dependent
exemption, it will be significantly more for some families: up to about $635
per child, depending on the family’s marginal tax rate.
Representative Tanzi’s bill (2026-H 8338) would have provided a refundable child tax
credit of $650 per child, but would have eliminated the dependent exemption,
making the version in the House budget comparable for many families. Sen.
Lammis J. Vargas (D-Dist. 28, Cranston, Providence) introduced the companion
bill (2026-S 2823) in the Senate.
Representative Tanzi’s second bill (2026-H 7627) included in the budget gives families the
option to keep their child in Early Intervention (EI) until the September
following their third birthday, if the child is eligible for preschool special
education services. Following the model of six other states plus Washington,
D.C., this approach closes a critical gap in services for young children with
special needs.
EI is a program that helps infants and toddlers with disabilities or developmental delays catch up to their peers. In Rhode Island, EI serves about 4,000 children annually. Today, EI services end immediately on a child’s third birthday, after which qualifying children can receive preschool special education services from school districts. But this transition is not always smooth, especially for children with birthdays in the spring and summer, when schools are winding down or not in session. Starting in 2028, this bill creates a new option for continuous services for children born between May 1 and Aug. 31...
Megan Cotter scores two budget wins
The 2027 state budget bill passed by the House of Representatives Friday includes a proposal from Rep. Megan L. Cotter to allocate $50,000 for the purchase of new forestry firefighting hoses for the Department of Environmental Management.
Representative Cotter, who has been a leader in the General Assembly on forestry issues, introduced legislation (2026-H 8206) earlier in the session seeking the appropriation for long overdue updates for DEM’s forest firefighting hoses....
Representative Cotter is also pleased that her fellow representatives supported her efforts to make the “green bond” included in the budget bill greener by adding open space preservation and resiliency efforts to the $55 million environmental bond question that will be presented to voters in November’s statewide election. She successfully led a similar effort that added open space and conservation funding to the green bond that was overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2024....
Budget includes Sen. DiMario bill to continue funding
Psychiatry Resource Network
Sen. Alana M. DiMario is applauding the inclusion in the state budget bill of her legislation to provide stable funding for a psychiatric resource network for providers treating children and new parents.
The Rhode Island Psychiatry Resource Network (PRN) is a
statewide teleconsultation resource for medical providers composed of two
programs: RI MomsPRN, which serves providers treating pregnant and postpartum
patients, and PediPRN, which serves primary care providers treating children
and adolescents. Both programs provide medical professionals with access to
consultations with licensed mental health professionals to assist them in
treating the mental health concerns of their patients.
Senator DiMario, who has worked with new mothers as an outpatient mental health provider for over a decade, has seen firsthand the numerous challenges for new mothers facing postpartum mental health difficulties, including finding a psychiatrist who accepts their insurance and is taking new patients, opening up to a total stranger during a difficult time and the challenge of fitting in a new appointment while caring for a newborn.
