Under The Dome: 3/17/2025

This Week At the State House

Tuesday, March 18th

Liability for Artificial Intelligence Product Injuries

On Tuesday (At the Rise in Room 313), the Senate Judiciary Committee is asking for comments on S.358, An Act Relating to Courts and Civil Procedure – Causes of Action. This legislation affects developers engaged in the initial training or fine tuning of artificial intelligence models that meet specific power and cost triggers. S.358 declares covered developers to be strictly liable for injuries factually or proximately caused, “regardless of the degree of care they exercised.” Defamation suits are exempt from strict liability. A rebuttable presumption is included as are two affirmative defenses. If your company is involved in AI development, please review this bill and contact the Chamber if you have concerns. S.358 can be viewed at: https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText25/SenateText25/S0358.pdf Written testimony should be submitted to SenateJudiciary@rilegislature.gov

Wednesday, March 19th

Employees’ Right to Buy a Business, Leave for Organ Donation

The House Labor Committee is meeting at 4:00 p.m. in Room 101.

H.5940 is on the agenda which is a companion bill to S.752 heard last week in the Senate Labor Committee. H.5940, An Act Relating to Labor and Labor Relations – The Rhode Island Opportunity for Employee Ownership Act, requires a majority of businesses in Rhode Island to give all full-time and part-time employees seven-days-notice of an intent to sell all or at least 51% of the business. This requirement applies to every business employing between three and five hundred employees that is privately held and not a publicly traded company. Once the notice is given, the employees have thirty days to respond with an intent buy notice, not an offer to purchase. If the employees form a group and give the owner an intent to buy notice, they then have 180 days to determine what they believe the value of the business to be before making an actual offer. In the event the business is sold to the employee group, the seller is exempt from paying capital gains on the first $1 million in gains. https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText25/HouseText25/H5940.pdf

H.6065, An Act Relating to Labor and Labor Relations – Rhode Island Bone Marrow And Organ Donor Leave Act https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText25/HouseText25/H6065.pdf places another requirement on businesses with fifty or more employees, as well as to state and certain municipal government entities. Employees who work thirty or more hours a week would qualify for medical leave covering medical tests, surgeries and recovery time related to the donation of an organ or bone marrow. The maximum duration of leave is thirty days for organ donation and five days for bone marrow donation. The employer must keep a similar job open for the

employee’s return and continue to pay for any health insurance provided to the employee. If the employee has a co-share premium, that amount must be paid to the employer prior to taking leave. H.6065 specifically states, “The taking of bone marrow or organ donor leave pursuant to this chapter shall not result in the loss of any benefit accrued before the date on which the leave commenced.”

Written testimony on either bill should be emailed to HouseLabor@rilegislature.gov

Thursday, March 20th

Energy Cost Redistribution – House Corporations Committee

H.5245, An Act Relating to Public Utilities and Carries, is the topic of discussion in the House Corporations Committee at the Rise (approximately 4:30pm) in the House Lounge. This bill creates a tiered rate system for electricity and natural gas customers whose household income level is below 150% of the federal poverty level and who are eligible for LIHEAP assistance or Medicaid. For these households, the plan envisions capping electric rates to ensure that they pay no more than 3% of their income on electricity or 6% of their income if the house utilizes electricity as a sole source of heat. The program will be funded by increased rates assessed on all other customers. The most current US Census estimates 10.8% of population in Rhode Island meets the definition of living in poverty. The census does not say how many are living at 150% of the federal poverty level. The Rhode Island total population at the time of the census was 1,095,962. Testimony may be submitted at HouseCorporations@rilegislature.gov

All Electric Buildings – House Committee on Municipal Government and Housing

H.5450, An Act Relating to Public Property and Works – All Electric Building Act bans municipalities from granting a building permit for any new commercial, residential or mixed-use building that is not an all-electric building effective December 31, 2026 unless it is deemed physically or technically infeasible. Financial considerations are not sufficient to meet the “infeasible” criteria. Permits can not be issued for any building or construction to convert an all-electric building into a mixed-fuel building if the application is submitted after December 31, 2026. Hospitals, medical facilities, laboratories for biological research and restaurants are exempt. https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText25/HouseText25/H5450.pdf

Written testimony may be emailed to: HouseMunicipalGovernmentandHousing@rilegislature.gov

New bills filed:

House Bill No. 6059 Noret, Corvese, Costantino, O'Brien, Dawson, Fellela, Batista, Fascia, Casey, AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH AND SAFETY -- CONSUMER PFAS BAN ACT OF 2024 (Exempts certain products that have PFAS if deemed safe by FDA.) https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText25/HouseText25/H6059.pdf

House Bill No. 6066 Giraldo, Potter, Voas, Stewart, Alzate, Morales, AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR AND LABOR RELATIONS -- TEMPORARY DISABILITY INSURANCE -- GENERAL PROVISIONS (Includes siblings, grandchildren, and care recipient in the coverage for temporary caregiver benefits and increases the taxable wage base upon which employees make contributions to the TDI and TCI funds.) https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText25/HouseText25/H6066.pdf

House Bill No. 6097 Finkelman, Baginski, AN ACT RELATING TO STATE AFFAIRS AND GOVERNMENT -- RHODE ISLAND COMMERCE CORPORATION -- QUALIFIED DATA CENTERS LOCATION INCENTIVE (Creates qualified data centers and tax exemptions.) https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText25/HouseText25/H6097.pdf

Senate Bill No. 779 Mack, Acosta, Kallman, AN ACT RELATING TO TAXATION -- WEALTH TAX (Imposes a wealth tax on Rhode Island individuals and entities at a rate of one percent (1%) of worldwide wealth.) https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText25/SenateText25/S0779.pdf

Senate Bill No. 812 LaMountain, Vargas, AN ACT RELATING TO STATE AFFAIRS AND GOVERNMENT -- EMINENT DOMAIN (Allows the department of environmental management to acquire established foot paths by eminent domain in order to provide public access to streams, rivers, lakes and ponds.) https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText25/SenateText25/S0812.pdf

Senate Bill No. 829 Murray, Thompson, Sosnowski, Valverde, Lawson, Ciccone, Bissaillon, Urso, AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR AND LABOR RELATIONS – RHODE ISLAND BONE MARROW AND ORGAN DONOR LEAVE ACT (Mandates paid leave by allowing qualified employees to take medical leave to undergo donation procedures, medical tests, and recovery related to being a living organ donor, or bone marrow transplant donor.) https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText25/SenateText25/S0829.pdf