Woonsocket Radio News Room

 

Senate passes Ruggerio bill to create commission to reapportion General Assembly, congressional districts

STATE HOUSE — The Senate today passed legislation introduced by Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio (D-Dist. 4, North Providence, Providence) that would create a reapportionment commission.

The legislation (2021-S 0852A) would establish an 18-member special commission on reapportionment whose purpose would be to draft and to report to the General Assembly an act to reapportion the districts of the General Assembly and the states congressional districts.

“It’s time once again to reapportion our General Assembly and congressional districts, and we want to make sure it’s done in the most transparent way possible,” said President Ruggerio. “This legislation calls for the commission to conduct public hearings, and to give members of the public access to the technical software used for district mapping.”

The state constitution calls for the General Assembly to reapportion its districts after each federal census. The last census took place in 2020.

The commission would consist of 18 members — four from the Senate, four from the House of Representatives, three from the general public that are appointed by the Speaker of the House, and three from the general public that are appointed by the President of the Senate.

The commission would be tasked in making its recommendations to the General Assembly by Jan. 15, 2022.

The measure now moves to the House of Representatives, where companion legislation (2021-H 6222A) has been introduced by Speaker of the House K. Joseph Shekarchi (D-Dist. 23, Warwick).

 

-30-

For an electronic version of this and all press releases published by the Legislative Press and Public Information Bureau, please visit our Web site at www.rilegislature.gov/pressrelease.   
Jury selection will continue tomorrow in Donald Trump's historic hush money trial. During the process, reports say the former President smiled at a group of potential jurors when the judge referred to him as "defendant." Trump is accused of falsifying business records to cover payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.        Anti-Israel protests took place on interstates, roads, and bridges in cities across the U.S. today. They converged on New York's Brooklyn Bridge and clashed with police. Meanwhile on the West Coast, they completely blocked southbound traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge.        "Rust" armorer Hannah Gutierrez is set to be sentenced today. Gutierrez faces 18 months in prison for negligence in loading the live ammo into Alec Baldwin's gun on set, causing the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Baldwin has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins' death, and is scheduled to head to trial in July.       It's crunch time for taxpayers and the IRS is making it easier for some last minute-filers ahead of tonight's deadline. The agency released an update for Direct File, its free tax filing program. The update allows taxpayers in a dozen states to import the previous year's information from the IRS in order to easily validate the current year's return.       Record labels have come to an agreement with the Screen Actors Guild on protections for artists from the use of AI. SAG-AFTRA announced Friday that the agreement with major labels follows protections the union and the Writers Guild of America reached with production studios last year after their respective strikes. They included landmark protections around using artificial intelligence as the evolving technology poses increasing threats to the creative workforce.        The Indiana Fever have selected Caitlin Clark with the number one pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. The former Iowa guard set numerous records during her career with the Hawkeyes. In her senior season, Clark became the all-time NCAA Division One men's and women's scoring leader.        

Old News Archives