New RI House rules package would allow members to vote remotely. Here's what to know
Lawmakers in the Rhode Island House of Representatives would be allowed to vote on bills from home, but lose the freedom to wage social-media battles on the chamber floor under a rewrite of the House rules set for a vote Thursday.
Remote voting was introduced during the COVID pandemic, and while the Senate kept it in place, when the House returned to the State House in 2021 the rules required that representatives be in the building to vote on legislation.
If the new rules pass as expected, remote voting will be allowed again, but only for lawmakers "unable to be physically present in the chamber due to a health or medical condition."
The rules bill gives the House speaker the power to require a doctor's note from any representative who votes remotely. It does not allow representatives to vote remotely in committees.
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Other notable rule changes: No poetry or social-media disputes on the floor
The other most notable changes to the rules have to do with speechmaking on the House floor and how far those remarks can stray into personal matters.
"Members shall restrict announcements on the House floor to statements which relate to legislative business or pertain to ceremonial events or occasions," the proposed rules say.
That would appear to rule out things such as readings of poetry unrelated to a specific ceremony, something that has been allowed in recent years.
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Before this year's first legislative session, Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi told colleagues he would be cracking down on lawmakers using floor speeches to settle social-media disputes.
Traditionally, the House has allowed members to make points "of personal privilege" in response "to criticism, or to discuss anything clearly derogatory, or which reflects upon his or her character ... that appears in the press orother public medium."
The new rules strike the phrase "other public medium," meaning only comments made in the press are fair game for rebuttal on the floor.
Finally, the new rules would eliminate the requirement that unaffiliated representatives declare in writing which major party they want to caucus with.
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Who voted against the new rules package?
That change was made at the request of Rep. Jon Brien, a Woonsocket independent, who filed a bill to do the same thing earlier this month. Brien, a former Democrat, has not announced which party he intends to caucus with.
The new rules, which will govern proceedings in the House for the next two years, passed out of the House Rules Committee on a party-line vote Tuesday evening.
Rep. Brian Newberry, R-North Smithfield, voted against the rules along with House GOP leader Michael Chippendale and Burrillville Republican Rep. David Place.
Newberry said he voted against the rules because they maintain the speaker's power over what legislation receives a vote. (Current rules allow bills to be held in committee indefinitely without an up or down vote.)
"The rules de facto allow the speaker to decide what comes to the floor," Newberry said about why he voted against the new rules. "To me that is the elephant in the room. Other than that [the rules] are pretty good."
Newberry said he didn't know if his own point "of personal privilege" a year ago, responding to tweets from a Democratic House member, inspired Shekarchi's new social-media rule, but said he doesn't object to it either way.
The Senate has yet to introduce new rules for this session.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI House of Representatives would allow remote voting with new rules
