Representative Deborah A. Fellela
Senior Deputy Majority Leader
First Vice Chair, House Veterans' Affairs Committee
Second Vice Chair, House Conduct Committee
Member, House Labor Committee
Member, House Oversight Committee
Deborah A. Fellela (D) represents District 43 in Johnston. First elected to her seat in November 2006, Representative Fellela is the Senior Deputy Majority Leader, making her a member of the House Leadership Team. She is the first vice chair of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, the second vice chair of the House Conduct Committee, and a member of the House Labor Committee and the House Oversight Committee.
During the 2024 session, she sponsored a new law that penalizes prescribers who overmedicate with death resulting. It imposes a probationary period of three years. A subsequent violation during the probationary period could result in a suspension or revocation of licensure.
In 2023, she introduced legislation to extend a pandemic-era policy to allow relatives to be paid for services to individuals with developmental disabilities, which was ultimately included in the state budget. A strong advocate for veterans, she also sponsored a law that removes all state park fees for Gold Star Families.
In 2021, she sponsored a law targeting reckless prescription practices, increasing fines to help ease the opioid epidemic. She also sponsored a new law that makes it easier for adopted adult children and their birth parents and siblings to find each other through mutual consent.
During the 2019 session, she cosponsored a child-protection law specifying the circumstances when the Office of the Child Advocate would investigate child fatalities. She also cosponsored animal protection legislation that requires pet trainers to be licensed.
She was previously a member of the School Improvement Team at the Robert F. Kennedy Elementary School in Providence and a member of the PTO at Barnes Elementary School in Johnston. She is also a communicant at Our Lady of Grace Church, belonging to the St. Anne's Sodality, and was a housing commissioner for the Johnston Housing Authority.
A 1974 graduate of East Providence High School, Representative Fellela retired in July 2020 after 28 years with the Providence School Department.
She was born Nov. 16, 1956. She has four children: Henry III, Matthew, Kyle, and Ally; and three grandchildren: Mia, Elvis, and Franco.