Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- With scores of bills still in limbo, the General Assembly went into hiatus at 1 a.m. Saturday, as House Speaker William J. Murphy cited the need to cool off and return not only in July, but on a regular basis in September to continue working through Rhode Island's fiscal problems.

"The actuality is that we're a full-time Legislature now. We're not the traditional citizens' legislature that our forefathers created," Murphy said as he stepped off the rostrum for the last time this month, a decision that surprised the public and many rank-and-file lawmakers.

Murphy acknowledged that was the plan all along, despite the fact that House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox spent much of Friday's 10-hour debate reassigning bills to "Monday's calendar."

The Senate, which left hours earlier Friday after sending the state budget to the governor's desk, promised to return next week to complete its business, though it did not schedule a specific date.

Many lawmakers expected to work through the week, or at least the night, to whittle away at the mountain of bills that had accumulated since January.

Some left without seeing their legislation pass. At least not yet. The Legislature failed to close a loophole in the state's prostitution law that legalizes the act so long as it happens indoors. The issue made national headlines and was set to emerge as a hallmark of this session, but won't become law until, or unless, House and Senate versions are reconciled.

The night was defined more by what didn't happen than what did.

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