| Dear Neighbors:
April is Earth Month, an appropriate time for us to consider the best response to climate change. While the current Presidential administration is complicating that response, progress continues in Rhode Island, other states and other countries. In this week’s letter, I will discuss the Senate District 3 legislative grant program.
Each year, the Senate leadership allows members the opportunity to recommend the distribution of State funds to community charitable 501(c)(3) organizations through the legislative grant program. Senators present recommendations to leadership, who consider them consistent with their review of the merits of the proposed grants, and the overall budget.
Upon taking office, I decided to open up the District 3 legislative grant program to the community. Each year, I invite community organizations to apply for grants, and community members to serve with me on a committee that reviews the applications. The committee applies the standards set forth in the application form. Two important criteria are the applicant’s ties to Senate District 3 and the proposed project’s benefit to the District 3 community as identified in this district map. The committee develops a recommended list within the available budget. While I have the ultimate responsibility to decide which grants and amounts to propose to Senate leadership, I have accepted the committee’s recommendations completely in each of the three years I have operated the program this way. Similarly, while Senate leadership has the responsibility to make the ultimate decision, they have to date adopted these recommendations completely.
This year’s legislative grants went to the following organizations: |
