The Rhode Island Ethics Commission on Tuesday approved two proposed rule changes regarding gifts given to public officials: one that is likely to please some state lawmakers, and the other to satisfy the wishes of government watchdogs.
The first rule change increases the gift cap for public officials, who will soon be able to receive $50 single gifts, or $150 worth of gifts in aggregate in one year, from the same person. The previous limits were $25 and $75, respectively.
The proposal to increase the gift cap had virtually no public support and was related to failed legislation in the Rhode Island Senate earlier this year that would have increased the individual gift limit to $50. The dead bill was sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Frank Ciccone III, a Providence Democrat, and nine other senators.
The second measure widens the state’s ethics code’s definition of an “interested person” to include all lobbyists, including those working on behalf of nonprofits. A loose stitch in ethics regulations allowed for a hypothetically limitless amount of gifts from nonprofit lobbyists, who were technically absent in the code’s definition of an “interested person.”
The Ethics Commission affirmed both rule changes, each consisting of several line-by-line refinements to the existing ethics code, via unanimous roll call votes. Commissioner Matthew D. Strauss was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.
The newly modified rules are scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2026, as the panel agreed to adopt a single effective date for all the changes to take effect. Ethics Commission Executive Director Jason Gramitt said his office will need time to compile the documents and revise the regulations.
“I’m not going to file immediately after today’s meeting,” Gramitt told the commission. “There’s some drafting I need to do, I need to make sure I’ve got certain forms filled out properly. I have some narratives I’m going to have to write and upload.”
Gramitt said his office will also have to tweak the state’s annual disclosure forms, which had removed a once-included section asking officials whether they received over $100 in gifts. Since the previous limit was $75, that section was removed, but now it will need to return, Gramitt said. The question will make its return to the 2027 disclosure filings in 2027, which will cover 2026.
Tuesday’s decision concludes a nine-month decision-making process that began at the behest of Common Cause Rhode Island in December. The open government advocacy group pushed for the “interested person” regulations to include all lobbyists.
“It’s disappointing they chose to raise the gift limits, even though they didn’t receive any testimony asking them to raise the gift limits,” John Marion, the executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, said after the commission’s vote.
Commissioner Scott Rabideau spoke in favor of the bigger gift limit from a municipal perspective, and he noted the $25 “applies to all municipal employees, to all of the people who serve on these little boards.”
“The guy who delivers oil, who knows the members of the town council, but he also delivers all over the school — you know, those things happen in small towns,” Rabideau said. “I think that going to $50 is not going to hurt.”
Commissioner Frank Cenerini, a retired Rhode Island District Court judge, has previously voiced his support for raising the gift limit and did so again Tuesday, arguing from the premise that “people who enter public service do so for good reasons.” He said the increased gift limit was simply a means of adjusting for inflation.
Marion was more pleased with the commission’s adoption of the new rule language his group suggested, and called it “an important loophole that needed to be closed by the commission.”
The rule is one that will affect Marion, too, since he is a registered lobbyist for his nonprofit good government group. Grammit told the commission that the state’s approximately 650 registered lobbyists will eventually be sent an email informing them of the rule change.
“John Marion, for instance, will receive an email,” Grammit said, motioning with his thumb backward to Marion, who was sitting in the audience.
“You can just hand deliver to him when he’s here,” added Commission Chair Lauren E. Jones.
The rule change bundles in a carveout for “food or beverage for immediate consumption at a reception or fundraiser to which all members of the General Assembly or statewide officers are invited and is hosted not more than once in any year by a not-for-profit entity that is not an interested person.”
Another exception allows gift giving to public officials or employees from interested parties if the official “is not a member or employee of the state or municipal agency that the interested person is lobbying.”
This is the first time the ethics commission has “voted to strengthen the state’s ethics laws” since 2012, according to a Common Cause news release.
Jones noted this was the first time he had completed a rulemaking procedure since joining the commission four years ago.
The remainder of the work now falls on Gramitt’s shoulders. Before the vote, the executive director had laughed while explaining to commissioners what comes next.
“Quite a lot of paperwork,” Gramitt said.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
