STATE HOUSE – District 23 Sen. Jessica de la Cruz, who was elected this week to serve her second term, has been elected Senate Minority Whip by Rhode Island Senate Republicans.
The group also re-elected Sen. Dennis Algiere, a Republican representing District 38 in Westerly, Charlestown, South Kingstown as Senate Minority Leader.
de la Cruz, a resident of North Smithfield, represents District 23 in Burrillville, Glocester and North Smithfield.
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Algiere, who has served as Minority Leader since 1997, thanked his colleagues for their confidence in his leadership and said the caucus is ready to tackle the very challenging economic and financial issues the state is facing.
“Now, more than ever, we need to work as hard as we can to find ways to protect taxpayers, small businesses and those in our most vulnerable populations,” Algiere said. “We need to get back to work so Rhode Islanders can get back to work.”
The caucus has been calling on the General Assembly to reconvene since April, de la Cruz noted.
“We have three branches of government and only two are operating,” de la Cruz said. “The executive branch is operating entirely without oversight. Rhode Island received more than $1 billion in federal money for COVID relief, but the legislature has had no say in how the money is being spent. The Assembly must reconvene. We need to pick up on those legislative priorities that we’ve had to hit pause on. We’ve had an election, and our constituents expect us to be working for them and working on getting Rhode Island back on the right track.”
de la Cruz is a member of both the Senate Judiciary and Senate Labor Committees. She sponsored legislation enabling veterans’ access to occupational therapy; and legislation that would require the governor to submit a zero-based budget to the General Assembly.
According to a release on the news, the caucus plans to continue working to make Rhode Island a better place to do business, and continue to work against tax and fee increases to taxpayers and businesses.
