by Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
January 2, 2026
Heading into his sixth year leading the chamber, Rhode Island House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi has mastered the art of satisfying a flurry of funding requests despite an ever-present budget deficit.
This year feels different.
“It’s going to be a challenging year,” Shekarchi, a Warwick Democrat, said in an interview in mid-December. “It’s going to be by far, the most challenging year I’ve had as speaker.”
The biggest source of his holiday headache: the federal government, which under President Donald Trump has upended once-reliable federal funding streams for state and local government.
Nearly $135 million in federal grants for state energy programs, infrastructure projects, public health initiatives and education programs have been cut off, or rendered inaccessible due to new strings attached to the money, according to an Oct. 30 analysis by the Rhode Island Office of Management and Budget. Meanwhile, major changes to federal health care and food assistance programs under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will kick tens of thousands of vulnerable residents off critical safety net programs, simultaneously forcing state agencies to invest millions of dollars in personnel, IT and consultants to meet new federal mandates.
The most sweeping changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) don’t kick in for one or more years. But legislative leaders are trying to prepare now for the financial and human costs.
“Everything is on the table,” Senate President Valarie Lawson said in a separate interview. “There’s tremendous need here in Rhode Island, and we can’t abandon these people.”
Lawson is fresh to the role, having ascended in the final throes of the 2025 session. Her rise to power was fraught with tension and grief after the death of her predecessor, former Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, in April.
Lawson, an East Providence Democrat and president of the state teachers union, acknowledged the public controversy permeating the upper chamber even before Ruggerio’s death. But the wounds inflicted by the Trump administration might offer a chance for lawmakers to find common ground in standing against federal funding cuts and policy changes.
“Most people who are here really feel like their priority is to get things done for Rhode Island, just like it’s my priority, and that’s our driving force here,” Lawson said. “We’re all professional here, and I really do think that members of this chamber care about policy, and this is where they want the energy of the chamber to be as well.”House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi says the 2026 legislative session will be the most challenging in his six years leading the chamber. At right is House Majority Leader Christopher Blazejewski. (Photo by Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current)
Here are the top talking points when the gavel bangs on Tuesday, Jan. 6, marking the start to a new session:
Health care
Looming Medicaid cuts will kick 33,500 Rhode Islanders off the government health benefits program by the end of 2026. But Rhode Island’s fragile health care system is already suffering.
Uncompetitive reimbursement rates with neighboring states have sapped the state’s supply of health care providers, including primary care doctors and nurses.
Insurance premiums have spiked by double-digit percentages, yet insurance companies are still struggling to remain solvent amid rising health care costs of their own. Cash-strapped hospitals can’t keep up with the volume or cost of uninsured patients, a situation that will grow more dire if the buyer of Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital can’t close the deal by mid-January.
The two safety net hospitals have ridden a roller coaster of uncertainty since their owner, Prospect Medical Holdings, filed for bankruptcy in January 2024. Prospective buyer The Centurion Foundation is still struggling to secure the investor-backed bonds needed to finalize the purchase and prevent the facilities from imminent closure.
The two hospitals treated 50,000 emergency room visitors last year and employ more than 2,700 people. But legislative leaders have not yet suggested forking over state funding to keep them afloat as Mass Gov. Maura Healey did in 2024 after Steward Health Care filed for bankruptcy and sold its Massachusetts hospitals.
Shekarchi and Lawson are still hoping Centurion will close the sale by a Jan. 15 deadline set in federal bankruptcy court in Texas. If not?
“Then there might be more efforts in the state,” Shekarchi said.
Even if Centurion closes the sale successfully, he’s anticipating some “asks” from the nonprofit buyer, though what and from whom remain unclear.
“We’ll address that when we get there, but we have to close the deal first,” Shekarchi said.
Lawson said keeping Roger Williams and Fatima open is “paramount to our health care system.”
The Senate’s 2026 policy wish list features other health care items, too: creating a medical school at the University of Rhode Island, banning insurance companies from requiring pre-authorization for mental health visits — piggybacking on the 2025 law that ended pre-authorizations for primary care — and regulating pharmacy benefit managers to make prescriptions more affordable.
“When we talk about health care, we’re looking at short-term, medium- and long-term,” Lawson said. “We need a fully functioning health care system so we have affordable, attainable access to health care.”
Creating a medical school at URI would cost $225 million over the first decade, including substantial state contributions along with private and philanthropic funding, according to a preliminary report commissioned by a state consultant.
“It’s an expensive proposition, and it’s long,” Shekarchi said, noting the 10 years it would take before doctors graduated and were serving the community.
A legislative commission exploring the topic is expected to issue a final report in January.Senate President Valarie Lawson listens as the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on advancing amended legislation restricting the sale of assault-style weapons to the Senate floor on June 18, 2025. Behind her is Senate Majority Leader Frank Ciccone. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
Education, housing
Also costly: drastic changes to the education funding formula. A task force created by the Rhode Island Foundation has recommended major overhauls to the calculations that fund local education districts, including placing a greater responsibility on the state to level the playing field for low-income students and non-native English speakers.
Lawson and Shekarchi both said they were aware of the forthcoming report, but said it was too early to comment.
Lawson, who spent more than three decades as a teacher in East Providence Public Schools, remains hungry to expand access to free school meals to all students, regardless of income, as nine other states have done.
“I still think it’s really important, because it’s removing an obstacle for kids to succeed,” Lawson said. “Kids who are fed, they achieve higher standards and test scores.”
The $40 million price tag has been a sticking point in recent years across both sides of the rotunda, but lawmakers are exploring ways to boost federal spending to cover the costs, Lawson said.
If education is Lawson’s strong suit, Shekarchi has made housing his focus tackling the many local land use rules making it harder to build and renovate fast and affordably. He again expects to release a multi-bill housing package this year that would cut red tape in local and state housing laws, though he’s awaiting final recommendations from the pair of legislative commissions considering housing affordability and land use.
Workforce
Intertwined with housing availability and affordability is the state’s talent pool. Fresh off the loss of Hasbro Inc., which cemented plans to abandon its century-old Rhode Island roots for a fresh new office in Boston’s Seaport district by the end of 2026, Shekarchi is keeping in close contact with other major state employers like CVS Health and FM. So far, executives at these companies have not given any hints they intend to abandon or reduce their local footprints, Shekarchi said.
Keeping major corporations happy relies not only on face time with Smith Hill leaders; they want access to workers, something Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks said was a major reason why the toy and gaming empire is moving to Boston.
That’s why the Rhode Island Senate has thrown its weight behind a $65 million “workforce innovation center” at the Community College of Rhode Island’s Warwick campus. The new building, funded via borrowing put to voters on the November 2026 ballot, would serve as a centralized hub for career and technical programs in critical industries like health care, defense, manufacturing, IT, construction and renewable energy, according to informational materials provided by the Senate on CCRI’s behalf. Sunlight pokes through clouds above the Rhode Island State House. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
Eye on 2026 elections
Eleven months out, conversations over candidates seeking state office in 2026 are flowing, including speculation over whether Shekarchi will run for governor. Shekarchi remained tight-lipped, promising an announcement sometime in the first quarter.
Gov. Dan McKee and his 2022 rival, Helena Buonanno Foulkes, are already jousting in what is shaping up to be a competitive Democratic primary, while a handful of Republicans have declared their candidacies, including former aide to Gov. Don Carcieri, Aaron Guckian.
All 113 members of the legislature will also be up for reelection in 2026 — an unspoken yet obvious factor that hangs over Smith Hill every two years. A trio of incumbent Democrats already face challengers propped up by a new, conservative-leaning political action committee, The League of RI Businesses.
Senate Majority Leader Frank Ciccone and Majority Whip David Tikoian’s attendance at fundraisers for two of the legislative challengers raised eyebrows. But Lawson has stayed away from the debate, and even Ciccone said he has not decided whether he will back his niece, Laura Turini, in her campaign to unseat Sen. Bridget Valverde of North Kingstown.
Lawson and Ciccone appeared an unlikely pairing when matched in April, with starkly different views on guns, abortion and other social issues. But Lawson sees value in a number two with different opinions; after all, it’s the same dynamic that characterized her relationship with Ruggerio as his majority leader last year.
“We all have to deal with different opinions and thoughts in the chamber, so I think it’s an asset,” she said.
And without major gun safety legislation on the horizon this year — at least, not yet — their policy differences might remain more veiled. Sen. Frank Ciccone, a Providence Democrat, takes a phone call before the start of the Rhode Island Senate’s floor session on April 1, 2025. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
Tax the rich revisited
Ciccone and Lawson share interest in a tax on top earners, though Ciccone draws the line at $1 million minimum.
In 2025, proposed legislation sought to add a 3% surtax on the top 1% of earners, which would affect roughly 5,700 state tax filers who earned $625,000 or more. It failed to advance in either chamber.
“Those are middle class people, still saving,” Ciccone said of the lower threshold.
Lawson said she was open to either version of a tax on top earners, noting the need to generate more income as federal funding shrinks. A 3% tax on the top 1% of earners would bring in $190 million annually for the state, according to analysis coupled with the 2025 bill.
Shekarchi reverted to his signature phrase when asked about his interest in a wealth tax.
“It’s all on the table,” he said.
Massachusetts voters in 2022 approved a ballot measure adding a 4% surtax on income over $1 million. But the Commonwealth exempts taxes after death on estates up to $2 million — a higher threshold than the $1.8 million exemption limit in Rhode Island..
“We need to be comparable to what our neighbors are doing,” Shekarchi said.
McKee, who gets first crack at a fiscal 2027 spending plan, also signaled new openness to a tax on high earners in an interview with the Providence Journal. Excavators and cranes seen near the eastbound Washington Bridge in East Providence on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
Washington Bridge
While legislative leaders get final say in the state’s annual tax and spending plan, Shekarchi deferred to the executive branch on what’s next for the Washington Bridge.
Coming off what he considered a “successful” oversight hearing in November led by former U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha, Shekarchi did not see additional action items for the legislature to take on.
“This is an executive function, and we’re waiting for the governor’s budget, we’re waiting for the transcript from the hearing, and we’re also waiting for some information to come from the [Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT)]” Shekarchi said.
Lawson, who travels the traffic-snarled span each day to and from work, said she was focused on restoring both the infrastructure and public faith in government. An out-of-service Rhode Island Public Transit Authority Bus seen near the agency’s Providence headquarters on Dec. 17, 2025. (Photo by Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
RIPTA
The cash-strapped Rhode Island Public Transit Authority faces a projected deficit of nearly $15 million for fiscal 2027, despite lawmakers directing new revenue sources to the transit agency through gas taxes and the state highway maintenance account in 2025. Yet RIPTA was still forced to enact sweeping service cuts to two-thirds of its routes starting last fall.
Shekarchi still sees room to “right-size” the agency, reducing frequency of low-ridership routes and overhead cost. The long-awaited efficiency study published in August also focused on slashing service to close the perennial agency budget gap.
Transit advocates have questioned the seemingly singular focus among lawmakers on cutting costs at RIPTA, while expenses at other behemoth state agencies, including RIDOT, swell.
Shekarchi acknowledged that other branches of government could benefit from some scrutiny of returns on investment.
But, he continued, “We’re not a business, we’re not a corporation. We serve people.”The voting board is shown in the Senate Chamber at the Rhode Island State House. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
Lightning round Q & A
Will Sen. Frank Ciccone keep his federal firearms license?
Yes. The Providence Democrat says he has “no interest” in giving up the license, and recently received a call from “someone looking for something,” although he hasn’t sold a gun since December 2024.
Is Sen. Val Lawson reconsidering giving up her day job amid continued scrutiny of ethical conflicts?
No. The Senate President insists she is no different than any other member of the part-time legislature, many of whom also face personal and professional conflicts in certain bills.
Has House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi smoothed things over with Gov. Dan McKee?
It seems like it. Despite the governor refusing to sign the fiscal 2026 budget, prompting harsh words exchanged with legislative leaders, Shekarchi said he still has a “good working relationship” with the executive branch.
Will there be legislation related to the Brown University mass shooting?
Too soon to tell. House Majority Leader Christopher Blazejewski, who lives in the East Side neighborhood where the shooting occurred, said his family and the wider community will be “forever changed” by the tragedy.
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Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com.