Monday, June 29, 2009

Separation of Powers Prevails!

On Thursday, June 25th, the Rhode Island Senate provided advice and consent to four current members of the Coastal Resources Management Council. Three of those members had never previously received the Senate’s approval. From the Senate Journal:

Upon motion of Senator Connors, seconded by Senator Algiere, the following measures on today’s Consent Calendar, by unanimous consent, are read and passed, upon a roll call vote with 34 Senators voting in the affirmative and 0 Senators voting in the negative as follows:

YEAS- 34: The Honorable President Paiva Weed and Senators Algiere, Bates, Blais, Connors, Cote, Crowley, DaPonte, Devall, DiPalma, Doyle, Felag, Fogarty, Gallo, Goodwin, Jabour, Lanzi, Lenihan, Levesque, Lynch, Maher, Maselli, McCaffrey, Metts, Miller, O’Neill, Perry, Picard, Pichardo, Ruggerio, Sheehan, Sosnowski, Tassoni, Walaska.

AYS- 0:

This seemingly unremarkable event is a huge victory in the march toward Separation of Powers in Rhode Island. Common Cause has long advocated that the 2004 Separation of Powers amendments are self-executing in nature. With this vote, the Governor and Senate took steps to bring the council into compliance with those amendments, all without new authorizing legislation.

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