School is out on Smith Hill, but the work is just beginning for state lawmakers who will spend their legislative break considering Pawtuxet River flooding, climate change mandates, and whether Central Falls public schools should return to local control.
Work begins at 3:30 p.m. Thursday when the first of five new study commissions created during the 2025 session kicks off with an inaugural organizational meeting. The Senate’s Special Legislative Commission to Study and Provide Recommendations for Potential Changes in Legislation/Oversight of the Act on Climate will review the 2021 decarbonization law, which set deadlines for incremental emissions reductions, eventually reaching net-zero by 2050..
Sen. Sam Zurier, a Providence Democrat sponsored the resolution to create the five-member study panel. In a prior interview, he said the legislative review intends to complement, not usurp, power from a separate consortium of state agencies charged with laying the framework for implementing the 2021 Act on Climate Law. The panel, which can have no more than four senators from the same political party, is required to issue a report outlining its review and recommendations no later than May 1, 2026.
The first meeting’s agenda calls for electing a chair person and a presentation from Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Director Terry Gray. In addition to Zurier, other senators serving on the study commission are Democratic Sens. V. Susan Sosnowski, Mark McKenney, and Lammis Vargis, and Republican Gordon Rogers.
Initial meetings have yet to be scheduled for the four other study commissions set to begin in the coming months. They are:
- A seven-member joint legislative study commission to consider the timeline and funding sources needed to return Central Falls Public Schools to city control. The school district has been under state control since 1991 amid severe financial strains, though the city has taken steps toward independence, including through a July 8 charter amendment setting up a nine-member, hybrid city school board. The study commission includes members from both chambers and outside education representatives. It must begin meeting by Aug. 31, and issue its recommendations to the Rhode Island General Assembly no later than March 3, 2026. Resolutions creating the panel were sponsored by Rep. Joshua Giraldo and Sen. Jonathon Acosta, both Central Falls Democrats.
- An 11-member House study commission to study and recommend solutions to flooding of the Pawtucket River. Overflow from the river and watershed spanning 17 miles of the western side of the state caused severe flooding and damage in Warwick on at least two recent incidents of heavy rainfall, in December 2023 and January 2024. The study commission, which includes representation from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency is scheduled to report its findings no later than March 2, 2026 under the resolution sponsored by Rep. Earl Read III, a Warwick Democrat.
- A 17-member House study commission to consider ways to improve educational outcomes for children in state care. The commission, created from a resolution sponsored by Rep. Julie Casimiro, a North Kingstown Democrat, comes amid a series of reports from the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families, documenting low graduation rates among children in foster care and the “warehousing” of children with serious psychiatric needs at Bradley Hospital due to a lack of community care placements. The commission, which includes representation from state and local public schools, including a special education teacher and another teacher certified in trauma-informed care, must issue reported recommendations no later than July 1, 2026.
- A 10-member House study commission to explore setting up a state-run program providing funding for low-income homeowners to make safety and energy efficiency repairs to their properties. The resolution from Rep. Arthur Handy, a Cranston Democrat, highlights the state’s aging housing stock — the third-oldest in the country according to a 2023 Rhode Island Foundation report — alongside the financial strain on homeowners to maintain and upgrade their properties. The panel, which includes representation from various state agencies and outside groups in building, housing and social services areas, must issue a report to the General Assembly no later than Jan. 5, 2026.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
