The Rhode Island General Assembly and the challenges of the Trump/Musk Administration

"They're not coming for communists - I guess maybe they are - but there's sure as shit coming for others," said Senator Megan Kallman. "We need to make sure that that does not happen on our watch."

Senator Megan Kallman

“A lot of the Medicaid that we get from the federal government is from matching programs, and they’re sometimes 90/10 matches,” said Rhode Island Speaker of the House Joseph Shekarchi on Sunday to an audience of around 150 people at the Westminster Unitarian Church in East Greenwich. “The federal government pays 90% and the state pays 10%. If those programs get cut back, that’s a significant cut, and we cannot make that up. We’re talking about the neediest of the needy. We’re talking about people who need insulin. We’re talking about people who use the state transportation system to go back and forth to dialysis. They’re the ones I’m concerned about. That’s hundreds of millions of dollars of potential cuts - which I hope and pray we don’t get, but we have to plan for that.”

Speaker Shekarchi was speaking at the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of Rhode Island (UULM-RI) Spring Legislative Forum. UULM-RI champions progressive, socially conscious legislation, such as the assault weapons ban, payday loan reform, the Freedom to Read Act, and more. Their advocacy includes letter-writing campaigns, attending public hearings and rallies, and testifying at the State House.

The day started with Reverend Deborah Bennett of Westminster Unitarian introducing State Representative David Morales (Democrat, District 7, Providence), who spoke about why working locally matters in this time of a chaotic and unpredictable federal government.

The transcript has been edited for clarity:

“Naturally, I would ask, how are we feeling these days? But I recognize that for many of us, that’s a series of mixed emotions because it seems like almost every day - actually, every hour - there’s a new headline that centers around some form of chaos that is, unfortunately, being brought to us by the federal government. The chaos represents attacks on our neighbors, communities, and basic civil rights. Whether through our television screens, scrolling through Facebook, or reading the paper, you probably ask yourself, ‘What can I do? How can I ensure I’m looking out for my neighbors? What can I do to help mitigate the harm that may be coming our way?’

“I say that confidently because I know many of us feel that sense of urgency and need to take action. For many of us, that takes the form of marching with a diverse coalition of community members all across the state. Let’s not forget that just last week, over 10,000 Rhode Islanders marched downtown, and over the last several months, we’ve seen similar demonstrations across the state. We are seeing our neighbors stand up and take action.

“Beyond rallies, we also recognize that there are local institutions of government where we can create change that is focused on safeguarding and protecting our neighbors here in this state but also send a message to the country and the other 49 states that there are ways to be bold during these times of uncertainty.

“This often means showing up at the State House to confidently advocate to a legislator, whether before a committee or on the House or Senate floor, and talking to them about an issue you care deeply about—whether it directly impacts you, a neighbor, or a loved one.

“I want to emphasize that it does make a difference. Sometimes we feel hopeless, even after we march. That little voice in your head might say, ‘What difference did that make?’

“I’m here to reassure you that it does make a difference because over the last several years, our state senators and representatives have acted upon pressing issues that have come down to us from the national level. Years ago, when there was hypothetical concern - that then became reality - around the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the state had already taken steps to codify those rights, and then we went a step further. We passed the Equality in Abortion Care Act, the EACA, to ensure that every neighbor had protection around reproductive rights regardless of socioeconomic status.

“This does not happen overnight. It happens because working people from across our state are showing up - who aren’t just confined to wearing these stiff suits - they’re in brightly colored t-shirts showing up from all the 39 cities and towns in our state, and being able to say, with passion, why this issue matters.

“Similarly, there have been ongoing concerns since the first Trump Administration that Republicans would repeal the Affordable Care Act. They made progress between 2016 and 2020, chipping away at several provisions within the ACA—but what we did in Rhode Island was ensure that the ACA was codified into state law as well. We wanted to ensure that if there ever came a time when the Affordable Care Act ceased, Rhode Island would be protected with the basic rights of healthcare.

“We take proactive steps because we recognize that for decades on end, the federal government has failed to act when investing in housing opportunities, regardless of administration. We have a national shortage of housing. We have an increasing number of unhoused neighbors. At the State House, we have heard from our neighbors about the skyrocketing rents, telling us that it’s difficult to age in place and that people find themselves displaced as a result. We have passed a record number of laws centered around ensuring that we can expand housing opportunities, specifically affordable housing opportunities, for everyone in our state, regardless of age or socioeconomic background. We’ve recognized the need, but beyond that, and most importantly, our neighbors have recognized that need and brought it to the attention of the General Assembly. That is why local advocacy makes such a difference: We can accomplish monumental investments that contrast the narrative at the federal level.

“We recognize that there are levels of uncertainty related to the future of our public education system and what support looks like from the federal government. We recognize attacks on public institutions such as libraries, healthcare, and medical facilities. But that’s why we organize - to maximize opportunities for every Rhode Islander. That’s why it’s so special to see the advocacy corner towards the back, where we have a series of advocacy organizations that ensure that Rhode Islanders will be protected regardless of what actions are taken at the federal level.

“If the federal government refuses to act on gun safety measures, then we know Moms Demand Action and the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence is going to ensure that we have an assault weapons ban. When the national movement of book banners tries to invade our backyard, we know the Coalition for the Freedom to Read will defend our right to read. And we know that despite how much they might want to say, ‘Drill, baby drill,’ Climate Action Rhode Island and every environmental organization will ensure our natural resources are protected and preserved.

“This cannot be done in silos. As legislators wearing these stiff suits, we cannot do it alone. We need members of our communities to come before the committee hearings, rally, and put pressure on legislators outside the State House. Whether a press conference or a protest, there is an urgent need and a call to action. I’m excited we’re all here together today to hear from a diverse group of legislators who represent different parts of Rhode Island, reinforcing the importance of local action because what we do here in our backyard has the most immediate impact on our neighbors. Let me repeat that. What happens in our backyard and the decisions made at City Hall and the State House have the most immediate impact on all of us.

“Fox News and MSNBC can keep the thrilling narratives as to what’s happening in DC, but we’re going to make sure that our efforts are concentrated here, locally, because that’s what we have control over. Most importantly, that will give hope to the rest of our state. That’s what’s going to give hope to our neighbors, children, and loved ones - to say, ‘Collectively, we made that change happen. We were able to accomplish that budget investment, regardless of any attacks from the federal government, because Rhode Island is a state that leads.’

“I know that we are prepared to lead over the next several months and years. Between the faith leaders, the advocacy organizations, and the legislators that have joined us, we will lead the way and demonstrate not just what resistance looks like, but what persistence for the greater good looks like.”

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Steve Aveson then moderated a forum of state legislators, including Senator Tiara Mack (Democrat, District 6, Providence), Senator Meghan Kallman (Democrat, District 15, Pawtucket), Representative Jason Knight (Democrat, District 67, Barrington, Warren), and Representative June Speakman (Democrat, District 68, Bristol, Warren). You can watch it here:

I did not transcribe the entire panel, but I did note the answers to moderator Steve Aveson’s final question. Avenson asked, “What takeaway can we take home and get excited about in the coming year?”

June Speakman: I have two things for you to do about housing at the local level. Join your zoning and planning boards. Talk to your friends at Neighbors Welcome—they can tell you how you, at the local level, can integrate the principles of gentle density and appropriate building. We need your voices at the local zoning and planning boards.

My second thing is that we haven’t mentioned healthcare yet and are in a crisis. We’re in a housing crisis, and we’re in a healthcare crisis in Rhode Island, which is shutting down. Anchor 25,000 patients.. The other night, we heard a bill in Health Human Services requiring pharma to subsidize our federally qualified health centers like Thundermist. That program needs to be maintained, and it is under threat. It’s a federal program. Hearing from you on that is important, and it matters. We get your letters. We read your letters. We let our leadership know how much we have heard from our constituents, so keep those cards and letters coming. 30% of Rhode Island is on Medicaid, and 50% of Rhode Island children are on Medicaid. That program is under threat at the federal level. That’s the thing that scares me the most right now.

Jason Knight: If I laid out a piece of paper and sat here for 10 minutes and thought about all the things I care about that we touch on in the General Assembly, I would have an overwhelming list. Today, it’s guns. Tomorrow, it’s housing. It’s our troubled healthcare system. It’s the plastics in the bay; it’s the plastics in our body. It’s the PFAS in the firefighter gear. Oh my God, do we have enough teachers? Do we have enough cops? CNAs? I can’t get them in the nursing homes, and private equity is in the nursing homes they own, stealing money.

Take a big, deep breath.

Pick one thing you can get into that you can be knowledgeable about and apply pressure to your local reps and senators. Reps and the senators sit on those committees. And let’s talk about the people nobody’s mentioned so far: the governor, his staff, and your federal delegation. If you do the one thing, maybe you can push that ball up the hill an inch, and maybe with your neighbors, push the ball up the hill another few inches - or perhaps get to the top and onto the other side. Whatever the issue is, don’t lose faith. At the end of the day, what Ben Franklin said, ‘A republic, if you can keep it.’ When you engage in civics like I describe, you do your part to keep it. I ask you to keep the faith; it will get better.

Tiara Mack: I didn’t mention consumer protection, specifically for low-income Rhode Islanders. I know one of the priorities of this congregation is banning payday loans. That’s also a priority of the Rhode Island Black, Latino, and API Caucus. This is year 14 or 15, and we’ve been trying to push that bill forward. This year, we have the big banks on board. Since 2018, almost every big bank, six out of eight, has payday loans between $500 and $1,500 that you can get below 20% interest. Payday loans are over 200% in Rhode Island right now. Our big banks have stepped up since 2018 to create programs that make it easier for low-income people to establish credit and get out of predatory practices, which put them in a line of debt.

These payday loans don’t exist in communities that look like this. They exist in communities that look like mine. They exist in Providence, on the south side. Low-income people are renters, and paying rent does not build your credit. These folks buy used cars, cash only, or on payment plans that don’t build their credit. These are folks who go to payday lenders, get a predatory loan for a thousand dollars. They end up paying $5,000, which doesn’t build their credit.

Our big banks have created programs that allow them to build credit and establish credit relationships with credit unions in Rhode Island. Keeping Rhode Island business in Rhode Island for Rhode Islanders at a cost that makes sense is one of the biggest things we can do to protect consumers in our state. That is the hill I’m going to die on this year.

Megan Kallman: I’ve got two things. First, if you do not know your state senators and representatives, please fix that because getting emails matters. I get 400 emails a day, and I keep a little tally. But it matters much more when all of the people who work in the State House can say, ‘Oh, hey, I ran into Nancy the other day’ and when Nancy calls me because Nancy happens to be an expert on whatever, and she says, “I have some input about this bill, can I get your ear?” Then, you have a process by which the community’s voice gets integrated into lawmaking. I’m saying that showing up to testify is great, but it’s also insufficient. So be there when you can in personal relationship. This is a small state. My district is two and a half miles wide because it’s quite dense. Everybody can walk from one end to the other if you need to. Your community representatives live in your community. They should be easy to find.

The second thing is that I’m a professor during the day, and I’ve been on this kick for the last week. Hannah Arendt was a philosopher. She wrote a book in 1951 called The Origins of Totalitarianism, in which she’s trying to explain why Stalin can get the kind of energy he got. We’re living through very similar times. One of Arendt’s conclusions, which has been borne out again and again by research, is that when people are isolated and alienated, they are much more susceptible to extremism and villainizing other people. So, thing number one: Please meet your neighbors.

If there’s somebody new across the street, bring them some cookies. If there’s somebody you haven’t seen for a while, knock on their door, do a wellness check, have dinner, or do whatever you do. When we are together, we are stronger. When we are isolated, we are much weaker, and there are more ugly toeholds where ugliness can get in. Let’s ensure that that does not happen and that it is a foundation of everything we do.

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Reverend Gene Dyszlewski and Kate McGovern awarded Representative Teresa Tanzi the Snowball Award for social justice because, in the General Assembly, only one social justice snowball is allowed through hell each year.

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Rhode Island Speaker of the House Joseph Shekarchi gave the keynote address. I did not transcribe the entire thing, but I am presenting some things he said that I didn’t hear him say the last couple of times I heard him speak.

The Budget

“This is my fifth year as Ppeaker. We’ve done five budgets; they’ve all been balanced, and they’ve all been bipartisan. I’m proud of that. We will try to continue that if we can, but some of the partisanship in Washington has now seeped to the state level. We’ll work very hard to put together a responsible budget, learning to live within our means for the people of Rhode Island.

“There are a lot of challenges. We have a significant revenue shortfall. To be quite honest with you, the governor has given me a budget with many holes in it. One of them you may have read about. There’s an article to combine minimum and medium security at the ACI for savings of about $6 million this year and $12 million annually. Unfortunately, he has abandoned that idea because there’s no savings in doing that for many reasons.

“There’s a $6 million hole in the Department of Education led by Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green. They have miscounted some students regarding reimbursements, federal stuff, and a whole bunch of complicated stuff to the tune of anywhere from $15 to $39 million shortfall this year, that we have to face.

“Then there are budget articles. I’ll give you a couple of examples. A budget article to tax Facebook and Google ads. It doesn’t sound like a bad idea - two big corporations making a lot of money. When it was presented to me, I asked questions. It went into the budget as revenue of $10 million this year and $20 million next year. I asked what other states are doing it. Only one state’s doing it, Maryland. When did they start? They just started recently. How much have they collected? Zero. Why? Facebook and Google are suing them in federal and state courts. That’s another $10 million I would have a hard time putting in the budget when no state has collected a dime on that.

“Those are just some of the challenges - the big looming question, which I’m sure all of you know, is we simply don’t know what’s coming from the Trump Administration. It’s a challenge every day. I used to say it changes daily; it changes hourly now, and there’s a lot of consternation and uneasiness.

‘We’re looking for solutions and alternatives and can’t wait. We have to do our job here in Rhode Island. We have to be prepared as best we can, and we have to hope that we get some clarity on what, at least for this year, our budget picture will look like because we put our budget together in May and vote on it in June, and that’s how it’s been. We will do our best to meet as many requirements as possible and hopefully fund them.”

Housing

“Everybody in this room wants affordable housing, but nobody wants it near them. That’s the truth. But just because it gets harder doesn’t mean we stop; we double down. We work harder; we’re more committed. I am more committed now than ever to do this because I’m seeing results. If you look at Austin, Texas, it’s not necessarily a blue state or city.

“Homelessness is down significantly. Rent prices are declining and stabilizing. Why? Because they’ve increased inventory at every single level of housing, including market rate housing, workforce housing, affordable housing, low-income housing, and homelessness. It’s a simple problem to diagnose but hard to fix. It’s supply and demand. You increase supply, everything decreases in price, and availability increases.

“Unfortunately, from 1990 to 2021, we haven’t had any land use reform in this state. We’ve let the cities and towns do it by ordinance, and they have become more and more restrictive, requiring larger and larger lots, two or three acres to build a house.

“The Town of Tiverton just introduced 15-18 bills to reverse all the housing gains we’ve made in the last four or five years because they don’t want housing. They don’t want people who live in Fall River to come to Tiverton. That’s the short of it from what I can tell you. Go to the city council.

“Support the reps and senators who voted for the housing packages. There are a lot of housing advocates, and if you ask, ‘What could we do to get more housing?’ They say it’s at the local level. Show up at your zoning board, show up at your planning board, show up at your city or town council. We want housing at every level. It’s housing. It’s where people live. I can’t think of a more benign use. We all have a house to go to; whether we own, share, or rent, it’s a house. Nobody should be against housing, and if you ask 10 people what’s affordable housing, you will get 11 different answers.”

Payday Loans and Taxing the Rich

Question: We strongly support eliminating predatory lending in this state. It’s been over 15 years, and we’ve not been able to move on that. And although we hadn’t discussed it on the panel, one of the things that we’ve gotten behind, which could enhance the budget, is what they’re calling the millionaire or billionaire tax, whatever the phrase for

Speaker Shekarchi: Tax the rich.

Question: Our problem is that these bills have been in committee for so long and are not voted on. We find that tremendously frustrating.

Speaker Shekarchi: As much as we want to tax our way out of this, we can’t. The numbers don’t work. We have to look at [taxing the rich, but] we have to prioritize the most important things we need to do. It’s not just me and my caucus. I meet weekly with the governor and the Senate President or the Senate leadership. We had a meeting on Wednesday; and we have another meeting tomorrow. We’re talking about managing the stuff coming out of Washington and the cuts. That’s the paramount issue.

Republicans

Question: Here’s something I read. The headline is: “Rhode Island GOP Chair of Joe Powers slams Hands Off protest. The real fight should be Hands Off our money.” Now there’s a lot to the statement, I don’t know if you’ve seen it.

Speaker Shekarchi: I have. They’re not my favorite people.

Question: We’re trying to reach common ground with people and understand where they’re coming from. So, how, as Speaker of the House, can you reach common ground with this? I mean, for me, it isn’t comforting.

Speaker Shekarchi: First of all, it’s very disturbing. I try to separate the Republicans I serve within the House and the General Assembly from the Republican Party. And I’ll be very honest with you: I don’t like the Republican Party at all. I’m not embarrassed to say it. About a year and a half ago, they filed a fake, bogus, partisan ethics complaint against me. It was very difficult because my integrity is one of my most important things. Politics aside, issues aside, it’s my integrity. They attacked my integrity, and they did it in a very bad way because I had an arson attack at my law office when I first became Speaker, and my office was burned to the ground. I lost all my records. I practiced with my sister, and 45 minutes earlier, my sister was there, before the fire started.

Somebody set it off. There were all kinds of theories, but they are still under active investigation by federal and state authorities. I lost all my records. The Republicans made a complaint against me, and I was a hundred percent exonerated. I’m proud of that. But it took me nine months and thousands and thousands of dollars, not taxpayer dollars - thousands and thousands of dollars to defend this. The Ethics Commission had two investigators and a full-time lawyer investigating me for nine months.

I practiced municipal law before planning boards, zoning boards, liquor license boards, and city councils. I visited all 39 cities and towns. People would ask me, “Why did you represent this project in West Warwick, and what was your connection to this project?”

I looked at it and thought, “I didn’t represent them," and then I said to myself, "I don’t have records to check," so I went to West Warwick and went through microfilm and asked for the files. It turns out it was a different attorney named Joe Chaka, not Joe Shekarchi. I had a week of consternation where I’m pouring through these records, or I’m paying people to go through them. And then someone asked me about something on Hope Street in Warwick. I never did anything on Hope Street. And sure enough, I had to look through the records. In 2003, I represented someone. I wasn’t an elected official. I represented somebody who wanted a shed on a property on Hope Street in Warwick, but I am looking for records that are 20 years old.

I had good files and had just completed a backup, but all my backups were in the office. I never thought of a fire. I thought of backups for an online hack. And by the way, not only was I exonerated, they said the allegation wasn’t true. But even if the allegation were true, it was not an ethics violation. I give the ethics commission credit for that. They went a step further, giving me a procedural win and on the merits, and I’m proud of that.

I’ve heard that they’re still trying to say that this housing legislation benefits me, my family, and my clients. We’ll deal with it when and if that comes.

Republicans in the House are a little bit more balanced. They don’t always get along with the state party. We have a good working relationship. We will disagree strongly on gun safety legislation. We’ll disagree strongly on inspector general legislation because I have a whole host of reasons why I think it’s a waste of taxpayer dollars, and I don’t like the secrecy aspect of these bills. The ACLU’s Steve Brown testified against the inspector general and several others. We already have an Attorney General Bureau of Audits and an Auditor General US Attorney investigating that stuff. I find common ground, but I cannot find common ground with the state Republican Party. Three people run that. I don’t like any of them. Seriously.

I have a good working relationship with the Republicans in the House and the General Assembly. I work across the aisle, and I’m trying to work on some housing legislation. Zamborano Hospital, Senator Jessica De La Cruz, and Representative David Place are very concerned about that. Minority Leader Mike Chippendale sometimes supports some of the housing legislation. He’s a Republican leader from Foster and Gloucester, but you’ll find that they will vote for Democrats more than they vote against it, sometimes 75, 80%. That’s where I find common ground. And a lot of them, not all of them, but a lot of them have voted for the budget. Those budgets are bipartisan. That’s not easy. I also find common ground regarding Medicaid, Medicare, and federal stuff. They have a staff person who’s very good at that.

RIPTA

“RIPTA has a whole advocacy group. They have a great lobbying team. RIPTA is a chronic mess as well. They had a leadership change there. Last year, they desperately needed money to provide service routes. We gave them money. We asked for one thing from RIPTA. We asked them to give us an efficiency study to understand why this is a problem and what we need to prioritize. All of you have seen RIPTA buses. Sometimes they’re relatively full, and sometimes they’re empty. I don’t know the process, but we gave them money. We asked for the study, but they haven’t done it.

“The governor has put a $0 increase in their budget. They want more money, and their advocacy group says, "Just take it from the general fund so it’s not new money." Taking it from the general fund is new money because that leaves a hole in the general fund. They want $35 million that we don’t have as a state. For me to get that, I have to cut somewhere else or raise revenue somewhere else.

“And that’s just one thing. The hospital system wants $90 million more. Primary care physicians want more money. Sojourner House wants more money. They do domestic abuse work. Each of these organizations is worth funding, and we have funded them significantly. But we did it with one-time, ARPA, and infrastructure money. That money has run out. The state still has to spend significant money on the Washington Bridge. We don’t know the cost of that bridge, we don’t have a design, and we don’t have a timetable, but I can guarantee you there’s going to be state money in that bridge - we can’t abandon the East Bay.

“There are some things we can do to help RIPTA. We may increase some ride-share money from Uber and Lyft and direct it to RIPTA. But RIPTA has got to get its management and organization together. I think the management they have now is good. I’m not criticizing them, it’s just it took them a year to start a study and we don’t have any idea what the results will be.

“There’s great need. The nursing homes want additional money for staffing levels. It seems like a never-ending demand for additional state funding. Remember, RIPTA is not being cut - RIPTA is getting the same allocation it got last year. They want more, and we don’t have more. It’s very difficult when it doesn’t make it into the governor’s initial budget because I have to fill what we talked about earlier, the Facebook and Google tax hole. I have to fill out the medium/minimum combination that’s gone, and I have to fill out the education undercount before we can even get to RIPTA.

“I’ve heard from Rep Justine Caldwell, a very passionate education advocate, ‘Speaker, any extra money has to go into education.’ Last year, above and beyond what the governor put in his budget, the General Assembly gave $70 million more to cities and towns for education. Some education communities have spent it wisely. Unfortunately, some haven’t.

“The governor has these directors who get paid a lot of money, and that’s another issue. The executive branch wants to give them raises. I’m opposed to that. I’ve said it publicly. If it gets transferred to me, I will bring it to the floor and let my membership vote. This is not the time, and quite frankly, the performance to give out raises. I know the money’s small regarding the budget; it’s about $90,000. It’s just bad optics. You’re sending out the wrong message.”

Primary Care Physician Shortage

Question: With Anchor Medical’s closing, we have a critical shortage of primary care physicians in Rhode Island. At the end of the month, there will be another 25,000 Rhode Islanders without primary care physicians, and many of those patients are in this room. What kind of efforts are being made to ease that shortage?

Speaker Shekarchi: Well, first of all, let me tell you, I understand that probably better than anyone for two reasons. Number one, my father was a doctor, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the medical profession. But number two, I don’t have a primary care doctor. My doctor retired in October. She’s younger than I am, and she was burnt out. She was from South America and moved to California for some family. Then, she will move back to South America and practice medicine there. I understand that. It’s very complicated stuff.

The Rhode Island Foundation reported last year about why reimbursement rates are so low in Rhode Island. They did a very good job of identifying that by saying that in Rhode Island, and I’m guilty of this too, we have passed a lot of mandates on insurance companies to cover this. When I was the majority leader, it was to cover mastectomy supplies, equipment, and postoperative requirements. We made them cover it at zero copay. They said fine, that money comes out of that same premium. The Rhode Island Foundation report says our premiums were relatively the same as those of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Still, our reimbursement rates are low because we cover a tremendous amount of stuff in Rhode Island, more than Massachusetts covered, for example, like Epipens. Some of those things are covered, some of them are covered partially, some of ‘em are covered in full. And it was those types of things. So I’ve tried to explain to my caucus that we need to be careful when we pass healthcare mandates because what we’re doing is we’re making it more difficult to raise reimbursement rates.

So what are we doing? We have a bunch of bills in the General Assembly. I know my good friends in the Senate have passed a lot of legislation, but it comes with money. It comes with a price tag: money we don’t have. The Senate passed a bill, universal pre-K. It’s a great bill. We should have it, but we’re looking at the estimate - $70 million that’s not in the budget. I don’t know where to get that money. I know school lunch is a big issue. Free school lunch and free school breakfast. We should, but maybe for the people who need it, not the wealthy. That’s just me. It’s just my opinion. But there’s a price tag on that. Justine Caldwell, who represents this area, is a big proponent. She wants free school lunches. But some communities, for the most part, already do that. Some communities are eligible for free lunches. They need to fill out forms and get reimbursed by the federal government. The administrations don’t want to do that. "It’s too difficult, Speaker. It’s too time-consuming. Just pass it for everybody." But it costs money, and there’s only so much of it.

The long answer is that we’re looking at a whole suite of bills. Like all my other reps, I hay own priorities, and my priority is that if we have any extra money in May, I want it to go to primary care doctors and practices.

By the way, I got an email from Dr. Schulman, I’ll be happy to share with anybody because he’s very outspoken. I had a neighborhood meeting on the east side, and he said, “Speaker, don’t give the money to the hospitals. They’re in the black with $25 million. Don’t give money to the hospitals, give it to the doctors.”

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The day ended with a panel on strategies needed to counter the effects of the Trump/Musk agenda on Rhode Island, featuring Aseem Rastogi of Indivisible RI and Steven Brown of the ACLU of Rhode Island and moderated by Senator Megan Kallman. I did not transcribe the entire panel but was taken with Senator Kallman’s closing words.

“David Morales opened the day asking, ‘What can I do?’ We’re all sitting here asking, ‘What can I do?’ I think the question warrants a slight modification. I think the question is ‘What do we do?’ because individually, we don’t do anything. We do nothing. It is at the scale of each other that we become greater than the dangers that we face, and indeed it is only at the scale of each other that we become greater than the dangers that we face. So, look around. Just take a second look around.

“Here’s your team, or at least part of your team. Memorize those faces. You’re going to need them. What happens here in Rhode Island over the course of the next several months and years is, to some extent, up to us. We’ve heard plenty of bad news today about how the cuts are coming and how we have neighbors who are living in fear of immigration, for instance. But there are things that we can do, and stepping into our power is, I would argue, a part of our moral mandate right now.

“We’ve got to love each other very, very hard. We have to love each other very hard in words and also in deeds. Part of that, to me, is sitting with grief and discomfort. It means sitting with disagreement. It means embracing and creating beauty. It means living the full range of human experiences because that’s what moments like this elicit from us.

“I would also add that every time you have to do something together, there’s an opportunity to have a party. Drink beer, listen to some music. You’re going to go to a 20,000-person protest - you might as well be dancing to a band. We have opportunities to do the stuff of life as we do the work that the moment is asking us to do. We need to stick to our values. We need to stick to our ethics - especially when those things are seemingly under assault all the time.

“We need to check our guts. We need to follow those guts, usually. Everybody’s little internal voice tends to be a pretty good barometer of what our ethics should be doing. We need to be conscious about whether we’re acting out of fear or out of love. It’s very easy to act out of fear, but I would argue that the greater mandate is to act out of love.

“We’ve all heard this poem about ‘First they came from the communists and the socialists and the trade unionists and the Jews, et cetera.’ We are seeing that right now. Where goes one group of us, so go all of us, whether that is the queer community, whether that is our immigrant community, whether that is women, whether that is the BIPOC members of Rhode Island - where goes one of us. So go all of us.

“This is our moment.

“They’re not coming for communists - I guess maybe they are - but there’s sure as shit coming for others. We need to make sure that that does not happen on our watch. We also need to make space for disagreement. We have a big tent here, and we need to have a big tent. Power building is not about agreeing a hundred percent with everybody you work with all the time. In fact, that is often a recipe for disaster. Purity tests don’t tend to be politically effective. If we only work with people we agree with a hundred percent, we will not get anything done, and we need to get a lot of things done.

“We need to build bridges. We need to find points of commonality, and we need to water those points. We need to nourish them, fertilize them, and let them bloom into something beautiful.

“It’s the first day of Passover today. I’m Jewish, and this is a festival when my people celebrate our escape from a deranged, power-hungry, and exploitative dictator. It feels somewhat on the nose this year, but I will also say it is utterly not cool for any group of people to use any other group of people as a ploy, as a torch, or as a foil to address anyone else.

“We’re better than this. I look around this room, and I see all this energy and all this heart, so let’s get out there and make it so.”