Lauren Carson
Deputy Majority Leader
Second Vice Chair, House Innovation, Internet and Technology Committee
Member, House Environment and Natural Resources Committee
Member, House Oversight Committee
Member, House Small Business Committee
Lauren Carson (D) was first elected to the House of Representatives in
November 2014 to represent District 75 in Newport. She was named a Deputy
Majority Leader in January 2021. Representative Carson is the second vice chair
of the House Innovation, Internet and Technology Committee and she serves on the
House Oversight Committee, while chairing that committee’s Tourism, Arts and
Recreation Subcommittee. She is also a member of the House Environment and
Natural Resources Committee and the House Small Business Committee.
Representative Carson has been particularly active on issues related to the
environment, small business, tourism and government transparency.
In 2021, Representative Carson was the sponsor of the Act on Climate, which updates Rhode Island's climate-emission reduction goals, makes them enforceable and prepares Rhode Island for a global economy that will be shifting to adapt to clean technology. The act has been heralded as one of the most important steps toward addressing climate change the state has taken in decades.
In her first year in the
House, Representative Cason created and led a commission to study the impact
of sea rise in Rhode Island. That
commission laid the groundwork for a law she later sponsored requiring education
on flooding and sea rise for local planning board
members. Another of her bills created a unified statewide application process
for solar
panel permitting. She was a cosponsor of
legislation phasing
out pollution-causing cesspools across the state. In 2020,
Representative Carson and Rep. Terri Cortvriend launched the Aquidneck
Island Climate Caucus, a community group to give
voice to the importance of mitigating and adapting for the earth’s changing
climate.
In 2015, Representative
Carson created and led a commission that studied ways to expand
tourism through effective
statewide branding efforts. Over the course of several years, that commission
closely monitored the Commerce Corporation’s efforts to revamp statewide
tourism promotion. She has worked for several years on legislation to ensure
visitors’ and neighbors’ safety by requiring every short-term
rental property listed for rent on the
website of any third-party hosting platform that conducts business in Rhode
Island to be registered with the Department of Business Regulation.
Representative Carson was a
cosponsor of the legislation that eliminated the state income tax on Social
Security benefits. Her legislation establishing the Rhode Island Aging and
Disability Resource Center to assist individuals in crafting long-term plans
for themselves and family members was enacted as part of the 2019 state budget.
A bill she sponsored made the General Treasurer’s pension performance
transparency initiative a permanent requirement.
Representative Carson
sponsored successful legislation on behalf of Newport schoolchildren to make
the American
burying beetle the state insect, and
legislation to assist the Newport Historical Society and Fort Adams.
Her current legislative
efforts include the creation of a special education ombudsman for parents of
children with special needs, the establishment of a structure for the oversight
and management of historical cemeteries and
legislation requiring digital and audio book publishers to offer them to
libraries on reasonable terms for public lending.
Representative Carson has
been named 2021
Environmental Champion by Clean Water Action, and
has been honored as Legislator of the Year at various times by the R.I. Audubon
Society, the
R.I. Hospitality Association and the Rhode Island
Conservation Districts. In 2017, she was honored as a Champion
for Seniors by the Edward King House
in Newport.
She has also served on the Advisory Board of the Alliance for Livable
Newport, the Newport Energy & Environment Commission and the Environmental
Council of the Rhode Island Educational Fund Board.
She obtained a Master’s degree in History from the University of Rhode Island
in 2008 and her Master’s in Business degree from URI in 1992, and earned a BA in
sociology in 1976 from Ramapo College in New Jersey. She is a graduate of
Benedictine Academy in New Jersey. Born on February 26, 1954, she is the mother
of a son, Andrew.