Representative Brian Patrick Kennedy
Speaker Pro Tempore
Member, House Corporations Committee
Member, House Innovation, Internet and Technology Committee
Member, House Rules Committee
Member, House State Government and Elections Committee
Brian
Patrick Kennedy (D) represents District 38 in Hopkinton and Westerly. First
elected in November 1988, Representative Kennedy is the senior ranking member
of the House of Representatives. He is Speaker Pro Tempore and the former
long-time chairman of the House Corporations Committee, of which he is still a
member. He also serves on the House Innovation, Internet and Technology
Committee, the House Rules Committee and the House State Government and
Elections Committee. He also is a member of the Permanent Joint Committee on
State Lottery and the Joint Defense Economy Planning Commission.
Earlier
this year, Representative Kennedy was elected president-elect
of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), a bipartisan
organization serving the nation’s 7,383 state lawmakers and legislative staff.
During the legislative session, he introduced a new law that requires Medicare
supplement policies in the state to be offered to all patients who are
eligible for Medicare by reason of disability, including end-stage renal
disease (ESRD) regardless of age.
He
sponsored a new law in 2021 that limits insured patients’ copays
for insulin used to treat diabetes to $40 for a 30-day supply.
During
the 2018 session, Representative Kennedy introduced a law that tightens the
regulatory controls on automobile
airbags, comprehensively expanding their registration to prohibit the
manufacture and importation of substandard airbags. He also sponsored a
pro-business law to make things easier for food
truck owners. The new law standardizes the business registration process for
trucks or carts that sell food, ice cream or lemonade by creating a state
mobile food establishment registration, and explicitly exempts such
establishments from laws regulating hawkers and peddlers.
In
2017, he introduced an elderly-protection
law that provides persons under limited guardianship with rights designed
to protect them from mental, physical and financial abuse by guardians. He also
successfully sponsored consumer-protection legislation that criminalizes
residential mortgage fraud.
A
strong advocate of business and consumer protections, he introduced legislation
in 2016 that prohibits
patent trolls, which prevents a person or company from making bad faith
assertions of patent infringement against a Rhode Island business or
individual. He also sponsored legislation that prevents unintentional lapses in
insurance coverage by requiring insurers to offer a designation of an alternate
contact.
Representative
Kennedy sits on a number of local boards, including the South County Tourism
Council and Westerly Hospital. He is also involved with a variety of
organizations, including as a member of the Executive Committees of the
National Conference of Insurance Legislators and National Conference of State
Legislators. He is also a member of the
American Council of Young Political Leaders, the Insurance Legislators
Foundation, National Association of Realtors and R.I. Association of Realtors.
Representative
Kennedy, an estate broker and appraiser for Kennedy Realty Appraisal, has a
master’s degree in business administration from Anna Maria College in 1987. He
earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Providence College in 1983. He is
a member of Chariho Regional High School’s Class of 1979. He was born on
January 3, 1961.