Dear Neighbors:
As the Red Sox season begins, I am reminded of the words of A. Bartlett Giamatti, who taught me about Dante’s poetry as an undergraduate:
Baseball breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall all alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.
Professor (and later Baseball Commissioner) Giamatti was a Red Sox fan all his life, which ended tragically and prematurely in 1989, long before the Red Sox ended the Curse of the Bambino. In this week’s letter, I will discuss severalt Senate bills I introduced that will be heard, and how you can submit written testimony if you wish.
A. The Motor Fuel Tax
As discussed in my January 19 letter , I introduced bills S-46 and S-47 to make the inflation adjustment to the motor fuel tax account for both years of inflation, and to direct 30% of the tax proceeds to RIPTA. The Senate Finance Committee will hear these bills on Tuesday, April 1 at the rise of the Senate (i.e. when session concludes around 5:00 p.m. in Room 211. You can send in comments via email up until 12:00 noon Tuesday at this address.
B. Breast Cancer Diagnosis Insurance Coverage
Medical imaging has greatly improved doctors’ ability to disagnose and treat breast cancer in its earliest stages, when the prospects of recovery are at its greatest. Unfortunately, too many Rhode Islanders miss out on this opportunity due to copays and cost sharing requirements in insurance policies. I introduced bill S-197 to prevent insurers from imposing cost sharing requirements for diagnostic or supplemental breast examinations. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee will hear this bill on Tuesday, April 1 at the rise of the Senate (i.e. when session concludes around 5:00 p.m. in the Senate Lounge. You can send in comments via email up until 12:00 noon Tuesday at this address.
C. The Providence Public Schools
Last Spring, the Senate Special Commission on the Providence Public Schools produced a report with proposed reforms summarized in this Power Point presentation. I introduced Senate bills S-860 and S-861 to implement one of those recommendations, namely to revise the State school takeover law to match the provisions in Massachusetts to appoint a receiver with broad authority to reform and restructure the school district’s operations. The Senate Education Committee will hear these bills on Wednesday, April 2 at 4:00 p.m. in Room 313. You can send in comments via email up until 12:00 noon Wednesday at this address.