Legislative Outlook: Senator Linda Ujifusa, D-Dist. 11 (Portsmouth, Bristol)

With the start of Rhode Island’s legislative session underway, we reached out, as we have these past few years, to the area’s legislative delegation with a brief survey looking at their initiatives in the past session and what they hope to accomplish in the 2024 session. We also asked about their perceptions of the state’s greatest challenges and focused on affordable housing and healthcare.

Senator Linda Ujifusa, D-Dist. 11, Portsmouth, Bristol

How can constituents learn more about you and your proposals, and how best can constituents contact you?

Website: www. ujifusa4ri.com 

Email: lindaujifusa.ri@gmail.com

Social media: https://www.facebook.com/Ujifusa4RI and     https://www.instagram.com/linda_ujifusa/

Phone: 401-472-4721

What legislation do you hope to introduce in the 2024 legislative session? Please give a brief description, and why it’s one of your priorities. Here are Senator Ujifusa listed her priorities and legislative initiatives on her website. There’s more information about the senator’s legislative initiatives on her website at https://www.ujifusa4ri.com/contact .Here’s what we found on the website:

2024 PRIORITIES

1. HEALTHCARE
   1. Healthcare provider shortages
   2. High healthcare and prescription costs
   3. Limiting insurance company prior authorizations
   4. Mental health treatment parity
2. SENIORS
   1. High tax burdens
   2. High caregiver costs
   3. Transportation challenges
3. ENVIRONMENT
   1. Pollution from plastics and other toxic substances
   2. Concrete and timely actions to transition away from fossil fuels and fair distribution of costs and benefits
   3. Local emergency management and planning
4. EDUCATION
   1. Unbalanced and unpredictable state school funding formula effects
5. TRANSPORTATION
   1. Improved state road maintenance
   2. Underfunding of public transit and bicycle/pedestrian options
6. HOUSING
   1. Short-term rentals
   2. Accessory dwelling units (“granny flats”)
   3. Lack of affordable housing
7. OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES
   1. Local small business assistance
   2. Common sense gun safety
   3. Veterans’ benefits
   4. Challenges for differently-abled individuals
   5. Artificial intelligence regulation 

What legislation did you introduce in the last legislative session and what was the outcome? The answers below are from the senator’s website.

2. Environmental Protection and Climate Change Action
   1. Controlled PFAS “forever chemicals” in drinking water; increased funding to 100 percent for state climate change response planning EC4 council.
3. Affordable healthcare
   1. Safeguarded federal Affordable Care Act consumer protections under state law; Required health insurers to limit out-of-pocket expenses for specialty prescription drugs.
4. Reducing Small Business and Resident taxes
   1. Created $50,000 tangible tax exemption so some 75 percent of small businesses will no longer have any tangible tax liability.
   2. Secured $3.3 million state funds for Portsmouth and Bristol to replace local car tax revenues
   3. Reduced consumer taxes by $35 million for electricity and natural gas bills.
5. Supporting Seniors and Veterans
   1. Prohibited discrimination against seniors with pre-existing conditions by private insurers selling Medicare Advantage plans.
   2. Allocated $15.3 million to nursing homes, with 80 percent going towards increasing caregiver wages.
   3. Extended property tax benefits to National Guard veterans.
6. Affordable Housing
   1. Facilitated conversion of commercial structures such as hospitals or malls into housing.
   2. Outlawed housing rental application fees.
   3. Provided tax incentives for developers to expand subsidized housing options.
7. Public Safety and Transportation Improvements
   1. Allocated $20 million in municipal grants for local road, bridge and sidewalk repairs.
   2. Created new requirement for electric charging station installations on new parking lots and expansions.
8. Education
   1. Protected state funding for Bristol Warren Regional and Portsmouth School Districts.

What do you see as the state’s greatest challenges in 2024?

Ujifusa: “We will not have the federal funding we previously got due to COVID and there will potentially be a serious lack of funding for Medicaid, public transportation, public schools, climate change resiliency, and affordable housing initiatives.”

Among the most critical issues in Rhode Island are affordable housing and

healthcare.

What do you think the legislature and governor need to do to address

           affordable housing concerns?

• Ujifusa: Consider having the state act as a public developer and create mixed-mincome housing, as has been done in Maryland.

Over the last few years, healthcare has been, to be kind, uncertain in Rhode Island. We’ve had    a failed merger between Care New England and Lifespan, we’ve had revolving Directors of Health Care, we have a critical shortage of primary care physicians with reimbursements in Rhode Island well below neighboring states. How should the governor and legislature address our critical healthcare issues?

• Ujifusa: “Consider transitioning away from having private insurance companies and their affiliated pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) run our Medicaid program. Connecticut, Ohio and other states have done this and been able to save hundreds of millions of dollars.” 

Finally, this is an election year. Are you planning on running for re-election, or some     other position (if so, which position)?

Ujifusa: Yes. I’ll be running for my current position as State Senator District 11 (Portsmouth, Bristol).”