Happy Saturday! Here’s another edition of my weekend column for WPRI.com — as always, send your takes, tips and trial balloons to tnesi@wpri.com and follow me on Twitter, Bluesky and Facebook.
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Nesi's Notes
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1. How much time should we spend analyzing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which narrowly cleared the U.S. House early Thursday? On the one hand, the bill would make sweeping changes to federal taxes and spending, with significant domino effects for Rhode Island and Massachusetts. On the other hand, the Senate is now poised to put its own stamp on the bill, which could mean drastic changes (and force a second nail-biter vote in the House). For now, let’s stick to what President Trump and House Republicans want to do. For local policymakers, Medicaid tops the list — stricter work and recertification requirements are expected to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in spending by reducing enrollment. (There would also be separate but related effects on coverage from cuts to tax credits for ACA health insurance.) SNAP — or food stamps — would see major changes, too. States would have to start covering a share of costs, potentially adding tens of millions of dollars to the Rhode Island state budget a few years from now. Energy is another policy area to watch. The House bill seeks significant savings by scaling back tax credits for green energy, which would be yet another setback for the offshore wind industry that local leaders have been touting for so long. That said, health care and energy are both issues where some GOP senators have concerns and may force changes. Then there are the macroeconomic effects. Experts say the bill would increase the federal debt — already high — by roughly $3 trillion over the next decade. That will put further pressure on interest rates across the economy, making the math more challenging on any local project financed by debt, from school construction to the Superman building.
2. Another provision of the House bill that’s sure to draw interest locally is the proposed hike in the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction, which lets taxpayers who itemize their returns deduct the amount they paid in state income taxes, municipal property taxes, and so on. House Republicans from high-tax blue states demanded this change; they’ve been beating the drum ever since President Trump’s 2017 tax cut law capped the SALT deduction at $10,000. The House bill would quadruple that to $40,000 (though with a phaseout for the highest-earners). But before any of you start spending your SALT savings, keep in mind that Senate Republicans appear to have virtually no interest in this change — they’d prefer to use the hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue for something else.
3. You won’t be surprised to hear that all the Democrats who represent this region in the House voted against the Big Beautiful Bill Act; every Democrat did. Congressman Magaziner said the bill would “fund the largest transfer of wealth from working people to the ultra-wealthy in our country’s history.” Congressman Amo called it “cruel, callous, and cold-hearted.” Congressman Keating labeled it “a s–t sandwich.” And Congressman Auchincloss described it as “the worst piece of legislation to get a majority vote in the lower chamber this century.” So when Auchincloss joined Kim Kalunian on Tuesday for a live interview on 12 News at 4, she asked a fair question: is there anything he likes in the bill? “Oh, sure,” Auchincloss replied. “The Republicans put a number of bipartisan bills from last Congress into this bill.” He cited a measure he introduced with several Republican colleagues to ban “spread pricing” by pharmacy benefit managers in the Medicaid program. “That was a good bill — I was a cosponsor of it — I’m thrilled to see it get closer to passage,” Auchincloss said. “But it doesn’t excuse kicking 13 million Americans off the health care rolls.”
4. When Marco Rubio was chosen as secretary of state, many speculated he’d have relatively warm relations with Capitol Hill after years as a U.S. senator himself. (Jack Reed, Sheldon Whitehouse, Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey all voted in favor of his confirmation, after all.) It isn’t turning out that way, as evidenced when Rubio returned to his old stomping grounds this week. A House Foreign Affairs hearing saw both Congressman Keating and Congressman Amo get into heated arguments with the secretary, over the question of whether Vladimir Putin is a war criminal in Keating’s case, and over USAID funding for Rhode Island-based Edesia in Amo’s. You can watch the videos to decide who got the better of each exchange. Amo followed up a day later by filing what he dubbed the R.U.B.I.O. Act, short for Reaffirming Unified Boundaries for Integrity and Oversight, which would bar the secretary of state from holding other positions. (Rubio is currently serving as secretary of state, acting national security adviser, acting national archivist, and acting USAID administrator.) Meantime over in the Senate, Sheldon Whitehouse had his own tense moment before the cameras at a hearing where he got into a heated argument with EPA Director Lee Zeldin.
5. Is this the year for Rhode Island to revamp the Access to Public Records Act? The battle was joined before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, though prospects for passage remain unclear. To get a flavor of the arguments, read Mike Stanton’s testimony in favor on behalf of the New England First Amendment Coalition, and Claire Richards’ testimony against on behalf of the governor’s office.
6. My colleague Alexandra Leslie had a string of interesting stories out of Providence City Hall this week: a first Assembly vote on the big tax hike … Mayor Smiley’s new policy on flag raising … progress on burying the India Point power lines … noise fines tied to the Butler Hospital strike … and the city’s possible selection as a World Cup “base camp.”
7. North Providence politics is abuzz after FBI investigators visited a firehouse asking questions about a concrete project. Mayor Lombardi told Tim White it has nothing to do with him and he’s not worried, but anytime federal agents start looking at how a city’s been spending money, people start talking. It also adds some intrigue to the decision by Town Council President Dino Autiello to stay put rather than enter the race to succeed the late Dominick Ruggerio. Autiello is instead backing one of his colleagues, Councilman Stefano Famiglietti, who entered the race this week ahead of the July 8 primary election.
8. The Aaron Thomas trial has ended with the former coach convicted of battery, a misdemeanor, but acquitted on felony charges over his regime of naked fat tests. “We are very satisfied that the jury saw the case a we saw it: no sexual intent whatsoever,” John McDonald, one of Thomas’s attorneys, told reporters Monday following the jury verdict. Attorney General Peter Neronha attributed the acquittal in part to Rhode Island’s three-year statute of limitations for second-degree sexual assault. “Had the statute of limitations been 10 years rather than three during the commission of these crimes, we could have, and would have, charged the defendant with many more crimes,” he said. For a closer look at the Thomas trial and its lessons, check out this video from Tim White and Eli Sherman on our website, or stream it on the 12+ smart TV app.
9. Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy will be on “Meet the Press” this weekend for a special edition about mental health, per a news release from NBC. May is Mental Health Awareness Month.
10. A bit of wisdom on polling from Marc Novicoff: “The problem is that people expect the most from polls when elections are close, but that is when polls are the least reliable, given the inevitability of error.”
11. Can it really be a Rhode Island summer without the Matunuck Oyster Bar? Best wishes to Perry Raso and his team as they rebuild from Tuesday’s devastating fire, which the state fire marshal’s office currently believes was accidental. A GoFundMe organized to help the establishment and its employees had already raised over $168,000 as of late Friday.
12. Looking for a date night next month? My old friend Lauren Henderson, now a celebrated jazz singer, is playing the Regattabar in Cambridge on June 21. She’s fabulous — you can get tickets here.
13. Proud to share the news that our Housing Crisis series from last year just won a regional Murrow Award. And congrats to all our fellow winners in the Providence/New Bedford media market, as well as elsewhere in New England!
14. “The heroes are all dead.” I don’t think I’ll ever forget that remark by Woonsocket’s Richard Fazzio — who just turned 100 — when I interviewed him last year about what he saw on D-Day. It’s a reminder that Memorial Day isn’t a second Veterans Day, but a specific remembrance of those who sacrificed everything. And if you want an unvarnished account of how bloody and awful those sacrifices really were, read S. L. A. Marshall’s 1960 Atlantic article “First Wave at Omaha Beach.”
15. Weekend reads … Antonia Noori Farzan on the decline of the classic Rhode Island accent … Nancy Lavin on potential ethics changes following the ILO scandal … Elizabeth McNamara on East Greenwich hitting the 10% affordable housing goal … Dan McGowan on the Rhode Island angles in the new book “Original Sin” … Jack Spillane on memories of the famed New Bedford judge John Xifaras … Ian Cassel on some advice for life.
16. Set your DVRs or fire up 12+ on your smart TV: This week on Newsmakers — a reporters’ roundtable. Watch Sunday at 5:30 a.m. on WPRI 12 and 10 a.m. on Fox Providence, or listen on the radio Sunday at 6 p.m. on WPRO. You can also subscribe to Newsmakers as a podcast via Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you back here next Saturday.
Ted Nesi (tnesi@wpri.com) is a Target 12 investigative reporter and 12 News politics/business editor. He co-hosts Newsmakers and writes Nesi’s Notes on Saturdays. Connect with him on Twitter, Bluesky and Facebook.
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