Kratom is derived from the leaves seen here, but U.S. consumers of the drug will often encounter it in a powder or capsule derived from the leaves seen here. (Getty Image)
Some bills never make it to a floor vote in the Rhode Island General Assembly. Some never even make it to a committee vote. So the bills that do make it to Gov. Dan McKee’s desk are something like chosen ones, seemingly destined to succeed.
But five pieces of legislation — including one which would have legalized the drug kratom — that made it to the governor’s desk flopped. McKee vetoed them, when his office announced Wednesday night his decisions on the final round of bills from this year’s legislative session, which ended June 14.
The governor can choose to sign a bill as a form of explicit endorsement, veto it, or can simply allow the bill to become law sans signature. The vetoed bills return to the chamber where they originated. The Rhode Island Constitution allows for the General Assembly to override the veto if three-fifths of members in both chambers vote to affirm the bill’s passage. That vote would need to take place before the start of the new law making session in January.
“I will be reviewing the veto messages in the coming days and confer with Senate President Ruggerio,” said House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi over email.
The bills will meet their end if the General Assembly decides not to take any action on the vetoes, which may be the most likely outcome as it’s rare for the session to reconvene. Rare, but not unheard of: During the Republican governorship of Don Carcieri, lawmakers assembled to overturn what the governor called “a slew of bills” in 2007. That same year Carcieri also vetoed the budget.
Unlike Carcieri, Gov. McKee was more selective in his disapproval. Here’s what he vetoed this year.
Kratom to stay in the gray market
House bill: H7231 by Rep. John Edwards, a Tiverton Democrat
Senate bill: S2704 by Sen. Hanna Gallo, a Cranston Democrat
A last-minute push by an obscure industry flooded lawmakers’ inboxes with hundreds of emails about a bill that had little activity until the final days of session, the Providence Journal reported. The relentlessness worked, and both the Senate and House approved a “consumer protection act” that would regulate the sale and distribution of kratom, which Rhode Island officially banned in 2017.
Kratom is a psychoactive substance that acts on the brain’s opioid receptors. The plant contains at least 45 alkaloids, or nitrogen-based chemical compounds, that are responsible for its medley of effects ranging from sedation to euphoria to stimulation. Originating in southeast Asia, the substance’s use as an opioid replacement or cessation treatment has been noted since the 1930s.
But while the substance has a long history, kratom had been relatively ignored by U.S. policymakers for decades. Thirteen states have adopted the Kratom Consumer Protection Act, but in Rhode Island, legislative and medical opposition to the bill pointed to the relative lack of controlled studies on its use. McKee’s veto letter noted that several state agencies requested a veto, including the Attorney General and the state’s taxation department. Would kratom be taxed as a food, a food ingredient, a controlled substance or a dietary supplement?
“Kratom is not a drug,” the lobbying group American Kratom Association declares on its website. The association says kratom is “naturally occurring,” although that doesn’t stop it from being a drug, as plants have often contributed to developments in medicine.
Meanwhile, the Global Kratom Coalition was “dismayed” by the veto, wrote its executive director, Matthew Lowe, in an emailed statement Thursday.
“While we acknowledge there is complexity around kratom we believe the issues can be handled through an appropriate regulatory program — as is often the case, regulation is better than prohibition. Rhode Island residents would benefit from provisions such as prohibiting adulteration with dangerous substances, restricting marketing practices, and ensuring that kratom products are not sold to individuals under the age of 21.”
Kratom may still be found and purchased in the state but only through gray market sources like gas stations, convenience stores or head shops that sometimes sell other ambiguously legal drugs like the aphrodisiacs Royal Honey or amyl nitrate. Kratom can also be purchased online, but some retailers will not ship to a Rhode Island address.
If the bill were to return to the Legislature, it would likely have a hard time in the Senate, where it passed without a veto-proof majority. The kratom bill encountered a 19-14 vote on the Senate version of the bill and an 18-15 vote on its House companion, with four senators not voting each time.
Nursing home advocates are not happy with Gov. Dan McKee’s shutdown of a bill that would have improved workforce standards for nursing homes. (Getty Image)
No relief for frontline workers in nursing home crisis
House bill: H7733 by Rep. Scott Slater, a Providence Democrat
Senate bill: S2612 by Sen. Bridget Valverde, a North Kingstown Democrat
This act was designed to soothe staffing shortages and other workforce issues at nursing homes via the creation of a 13-member advisory board. The board’s findings would influence the state’s labor department by setting compensation, training and other workforce standards.
In December 2023, McKee declared Rhode Island to have a “nursing home emergency,” amid a landscape of closures, low pay, lost funding, a labor crisis and receiverships. But for McKee’s office, the standards bill was “focused so narrowly on only working conditions and wages” that other crucial issues in the nursing home industry, like Medicaid reimbursement rates, would be ignored in this legislation. McKee added that the nursing home industry is “already heavily regulated” at both the state and federal level.
Advocacy coalition Raise the Bar on Resident Care released a statement Thursday morning on McKee’s veto, calling it “a devastating blow to the residents of Rhode Island’s nursing homes…[the bill] aimed to address these issues by ensuring better training and working conditions for caregivers, which are essential for enhancing the quality of resident care.”
“It is time for the McKee Administration to remember its promises and create a comprehensive plan to end the nursing home crisis in Rhode Island,” the coalition wrote.
Taking the scalpel to the surgical assistants license
House bill: H7825 by Rep. David Bennett, a Warwick Democrat
Senate bill: S2874 by Sen. Sandra Cano, a Pawtucket Democrat
Another advisory board bill, this legislation would have crafted a seven-member licensing board for surgical first assistants. These assistants work alongside surgeons during operations and help with equipment, incisions, bleeding and other tasks.
“Strong national certifications exist to license surgical first assistants; unfortunately, Rhode Island does not have a license that recognizes them,” Sen. Cano wrote in a statement when the bill passed. “The consequences of this regulatory gap are skilled workers who can’t use their skills and surgeons who can’t book the help they need.”
Ideally, surgeons get help during procedures from other surgeons or resident physicians who are in training, according to the American College of Surgeons. But the national organization also acknowledges that “it may be necessary to have nonphysicians serve as first assistants,” which is the special role this bill would have addressed.
McKee wrote that the bill failed to designate funds for either board management or the expert opinions needed to form the advisory board. He also singled out the state health department’s advice that no additional oversight is needed for this particular group of medical professionals.
More power for the Attorney General? Nope
House bill: H7830 by Rep. David Morales, a Providence Democrat
Senate bill: S2935 by Sen. Dawn Euer, a Newport Democrat
The Rhode Island Office of Attorney General would have expanded powers under this legislation, with additional capacity to investigate and take legal action against parties engaged in persistent illegal activity.
In a statement when the bill passed the Assembly, Morales said the attorney general currently “lacks the ability to proactively investigate [patterns of abuse] until they have grown so egregious as to merit a lawsuit or referral from another state agency.”
“This law allows his office to step in and investigate earlier, before more of our neighbors can be harmed,” Morales wrote.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha is seen speaking at the Rhode Island Health Care Summit on May 28, 2024, emphasizing the importance of Our Lady of Fatima and Roger Williams Medical Center to the state’s health care network. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
Citing opposition from the ACLU and Rhode Island Business Coalition, McKee argued in his veto letter that the “act’s deficiencies are numerous,” and would lead to inevitable confusions, disputes and uncomfortable overlaps of authority. McKee also shared the ACLU’s worry that the bill’s idea of “persistent illegality” could be leveraged against people or businesses in a helter-skelter and ultimately unfair way.
Attorney General Peter Neronha has frequently clashed with McKee, and the AG seemed to subtweet this ongoing match by commenting on the veto Thursday morning. Neronha tweeted that it’s “perhaps just 1” government leader who is “afraid of a strong AG’s office.”
Then he waved away any outside party’s concerns about his office, which he wrote has “delivered over and over” even within its existing set of powers: “We’ll continue to flex.”
Noncompete bill now a nonstarter
House bill: H8059 by Rep. Jacquelyn Baginski, a Cranston Democrat
Senate bill: S2436 by Sen. Matthew Lamountain, a Warwick Democrat
The Federal Trade Commission recently ruled to ban most noncompete clauses, which prevent employees who leave a company from going to work for a competitor. Non-compete agreements could remain for most senior executives, however. The Rhode Island legislation would have potentiated the federal law, and prohibit these agreements except if made between a seller and buyer of a business.
“This is a widespread and unfair practice that suppresses wages, hampers innovation and blocks entrepreneurs from starting new businesses,” LaMountain wrote in a statement after the bill passed the legislature.
McKee wrote that the bill goes above and beyond the federal rules regarding non-competes, and “would continue to bind Rhode Island by its onerous restrictions” should federal law ever change.
Sen. Sam Bell, a Providence Democrat, tweeted “good for him” on McKee’s slashing of the kratom bill, but suggested the noncompete veto warranted some action from the General Assembly: “Time for some overrides,” he wrote.
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