Representative Brian Patrick Kennedy

Speaker Pro Tempore

Member, House Corporations Committee

Member, House Innovation and Technology Committee

Member, House Rules Committee

Member, House State Government and Elections Committee

Member, House Conduct 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 was the former long-time chairman of the House Corporations Committee, of which he is still a member. He also serves on the House Innovation and Technology Committee, the House Rules Committee, the House State Government and Elections Committee, and the House Conduct Committee. He also is a member of the Joint Defense Economy Planning Commission.

In August 2023, Representative Kennedy was elected president of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), a bipartisan organization serving the nation’s 7,383 state lawmakers and legislative staff.​

Representative Kennedy had an extremely productive session in 2024, with nine of his bills becoming law. A strong advocate for preparedness in the face of climate change and natural disasters, he sponsored the Facilitating Business Rapid Response to State Declared Disaster Act of 2024, which exempts out-of-state businesses and their employees performing services during declared state or federal disasters or emergencies from state or local business requirements.

He also introduced the Vegetation Management for Electric System Reliability Act that requires an electric distribution company to develop a vegetation management plan approved by the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers to implement activities for vegetation clearing on and around utility infrastructure along public and private rights of way.

In 2023, he sponsored legislation, which was signed into law, to amend Rhode Island’s interstate nurse licensure compact​ to allow nurses to hold a multi-state license, allowing them to practice across state lines without having to obtain multiple licenses.​​​

During the 2022 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 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 law standardized 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 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.