Warwick’s own K. Joseph Shekarchi was reelected Speaker of the House at the opening session of the House of Representatives Tuesday afternoon by a vote of 64 to 8 with two abstentions. The eight votes were Republican votes for minority leader Michael W. Chippendale of Foster. Supreme Court Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg administered the oath of office as Shekarchi placed his hand on a Bible held by his sister, Mary. The following are excerpts from Shekarchi’s address:

I believe a strong spirit of collaboration has helped us accomplish so much: the past two-year term was one of the most productive in recent history. The legislation we passed was the result of many, many hours of hard work.  For that, I thank you. I am so proud to lead this very diverse and talented group of lawmakers.

Over the last two years, we laid a solid groundwork and have achieved so much:

• Unprecedented investments in housing – more than $250 million dollars, the establishment of the first-ever permanent funding stream for affordable housing in Rhode Island, and the creation of a Housing Secretary
• The best two years of environmental policy-making in Rhode Island history, including passage of the historic Act on Climate

o And, in the past two years, we have passed three fair and balanced budgets in which we have not raised taxes. In fact, we have implemented strategic tax relief that impacts virtually all Rhode Islanders, including the permanent elimination of the car tax.

As we embark on a new legislative term, we need to build upon this foundation. We will continue to meet the needs of today while putting ourselves in the best position to solve the problems of tomorrow.

We have made progress in tackling Rhode Island’s housing crisis. However, we need to do much more.  Our lack of affordable housing has been exposed in recent months. There can be no doubt we have a housing crisis and a homelessness crisis. As long as there are people without safe and permanent housing, our work is not done.

In the last session, we created two commissions, which have been working diligently to look at many of the barriers to housing production in Rhode Island. One commission, led by Chairwoman June Speakman, is studying the state’s Low and Moderate Income Housing Act. The other commission is made up of a team of experts studying land use more generally.

In order to find solutions to our housing crisis, we need to bring all parties to the table, including cities and towns. As our commissions have already heard, some of the barriers to housing production must be addressed at the local level.

While we have built and funded a solid framework over the past two years, now we must ensure that the directives we have set forth are executed swiftly and efficiently.

… while we have weathered the storm of COVID-19, there is another real and impending storm on the horizon: the recession of 2023. While we continue working to strengthen our economy now, we must anticipate and prepare for the economy of tomorrow.

There is no reason why Rhode Island cannot be a leader in the bio-life science field. Our world-class healthcare and higher education institutions, and our bio-manufacturing companies, combined with our closeness to other metropolitan areas, uniquely position Rhode Island to become a hub for life sciences.

The emerging green economy also presents a host of opportunities for us to create new jobs while we move away from reliance on carbon fuels. I want to build on our last two years of historic accomplishments in environmental initiatives. We must continue striving to meet the renewable energy goals and the guidelines outlined in the Act on Climate.

We also need to make sure that the next generation of our workforce is trained and ready – we must ensure that all of our students are able to achieve greatness and are prepared for success.

As we build on the accomplishments of the last two years, we will continue to maintain the transparency that has been the hallmark of this House. We better serve the public when our government is open and accessible.

To my colleagues in this chamber, I believe in you. I am excited to continue the work we’ve started, and to accomplish even more. We will work together to get good things done this session.