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2025 Rhode Island legislative session

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2025 Rhode Island legislative session
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General information
Scheduled session start:    January 7, 2025

Scheduled session end:    June 20, 2025

Leadership
Senate President
Dominick Ruggerio (D)

House Speaker
K. Joseph Shekarchi (D)
Majority Leader
Senate: Valarie Lawson (D)
House: Christopher Blazejewski (D)
Minority Leader
Senate: Jessica de la Cruz (R)
House: Michael Chippendale (R)

Elections
Next Election:    November 3, 2026

Last Election:    November 5, 2024

Previous legislative sessions
2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018
Other 2025 legislative sessions


In 2025, the Rhode Island General Assembly was scheduled to convene on January 7 and adjourn on June 20.

The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2024 elections. Democrats won a 34-4 majority in the Senate and a 64-10 majority with one independent in the House. The party also controlled the governorship, creating a Democratic state government trifecta. At the start of the 2025 session, Rhode Island was one of seven state legislatures where Democrats had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.

At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session:
  • Democrats held a majority in the Rhode Island state House and state Senate.
  • Rhode Island was one of 15 Democratic state government trifectas.
  • Rhode Island's governor was Democrat Daniel McKee.

    • Leadership in 2025

    See also: Leadership positions in state legislatures

    Rhode Island State Senate

    Rhode Island House of Representatives

    Partisan control in 2025

    See also: State government trifectas

    Rhode Island was one of 15 Democratic state government trifectas at the start of 2025 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.

    Rhode Island was also one of seven state legislatures where Democrats had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.

    The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the Rhode Island General Assembly in the 2025 legislative session.

    Rhode Island State Senate

    Party As of January 2025
         Democratic Party 34
         Republican Party 4
    Total 38

    Rhode Island House of Representatives

    Party As of January 2025
         Democratic Party 64
         Republican Party 10
         Independent 1
    Total 75

    Regular session

    The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2025 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation has met these criteria yet in 2025. This information is provided by BillTrack50.

    Legislation trackers

    See also: Legislation Trackers

    Ballotpedia’s legislation trackers are your go-to resource for staying on top of key legislative topics. We capture any bill introduced on the topic across all of the 50 state legislatures, and we track the movement of the bill every step of the way. We provide real-time updates and translate legislative legalese into easily understandable language. As of the 2025 session, Ballotpedia provided tracking on the following topics. Click on the links below to view related bills from the 2025 session:

    Standing legislative committees

    See also: Standing committee and List of committees in Rhode Island state government


    A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.

    At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session, there were 28 standing committees in Rhode Island's state government, including two joint legislative committees, 10 state Senate committees, and 16 state House committees.

    Joint legislative committees

    Senate committees

    House committees

    Legislatively referred constitutional amendments

    In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.

    The methods by which the Rhode Island Constitution can be amended:

    See also: Article XIV of the Rhode Island Constitution and Laws governing ballot measures in Rhode Island

    There are two paths by which the Rhode Island Constitution can be changed: the legislatively referred constitutional amendment and the constitutional convention. Rhode Island residents do not have the power of initiated constitutional amendments.

    Legislature

    See also: Legislatively referred constitutional amendment

    A simple majority vote is required during one legislative session for the Rhode Island State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 38 votes in the Rhode Island House of Representatives and 20 votes in the Rhode Island State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

    Convention

    See also: Convention-referred constitutional amendment

    According to section 2 of Article XIV of the Rhode Island Constitution, a simple majority vote in one legislative session is required for the state legislature to place a constitutional convention question on the ballot. A simple majority vote of the electorate is required to call the convention. The state constitution also requires that a state constitutional convention question is provided to voters at least 10 years after the prior question. Rhode Island is one of 14 states that provides for an automatic constitutional convention question.

    The table below shows the last and next constitutional convention question election years:

    State Interval Last question on the ballot Next question on the ballot
    Rhode Island 10 years 2014 2024


    Historical partisan control

    The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Rhode Island.

    Rhode Island Party Control: 1992-2025
    Sixteen years of Democratic trifectas  •  No Republican trifectas
    Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

    Year 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
    Governor D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R I I D D D D D D D D D D D D D
    Senate D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D
    House D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D

    Historical Senate control

    Democrats won control of the Rhode Island State Senate in 1958. In 2024, they won a 34-4 majority.

    The table below shows the partisan history of the Rhode Island Senate following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Rhode Island State Senate election results: 1992-2024

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18 '20 '22 '24
    Democrats 39 40 41 42 44 32 33 33 33 29 32 32 33 33 33 33 34
    Republicans 11 10 9 8 6 6 5 5 4 8 5 5 5 5 5 5 4

    Historical House control

    Democrats won control of the Rhode Island House of Representatives in 1940. In 2024, they won a 64-10-1 majority.

    The table below shows the partisan history of the Rhode Island House following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Rhode Island House of Representatives election results: 1992-2024

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18 '20 '22 '24
    Democrats 85 84 84 86 85 63 59 60 69 65 69 63 64 66 65 65 64
    Republicans 15 16 16 13 15 11 16 15 6 10 6 11 10 9 10 9 10
    Other 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

    Analysis

    Adopted legislation, 2015-2024

    See also: The State Legislative Decade - Rhode Island

    In 2024, Ballotpedia released analysis of bills enacted in each state in the preceding decade. The charts and table below detail legislation passed each year by party sponsorship.

    See also

    Elections Rhode Island State Government State Legislatures State Politics
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    Rhode Island State Flag-Close Up.jpg
    State Houses-Tile image.png
    State Courts-Tile image.png

    External links

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Lawson was elected president on April 29 after the death of Dominick Ruggerio.
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