Rhode Island Legislature
| Rhode Island General Assembly | |
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| Leadership | |
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Speaker of the House
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President of the Senate
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| Structure | |
| Seats | 113 38 senators 75 representatives |
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Senate political groups
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House of Representatives political groups
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| Elections | |
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Senate last election
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November 6, 2012 |
| Meeting place | |
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| Rhode Island State House, Providence, Rhode Island | |
| Website | |
| http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/ | |
The State of Rhode Island General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. A bicameral body, it is composed of the lower Rhode Island House of Representatives with 75 representatives, and the upper Rhode Island Senate with 38 senators. Members are elected in the general election immediately preceding the beginning of the term or in special elections called to fill vacancies. There are no term limits for either chamber.
The General Assembly meets at the Rhode Island State House on the border of Downtown and Smith Hill in Providence. Smith Hill is sometimes used as a metonym for the Rhode Island General Assembly.
On 12 June 1775, the Rhode Island General Assembly, meeting at East Greenwich, passed a resolution, which created the first formal, governmentally authorized navy in the Western Hemisphere: “It is voted and resolved, that the committee of safety be, and they are hereby, directed to charter two suitable vessels, for the use of the colony, and fit out the same in the best manner, to protect the trade of this colony... “That the largest of the said vessels be manned with eighty men, exclusive of officers; and be equipped with ten guns, four-pounders; fourteen swivel guns, a sufficient number of small arms, and all necessary warlike stores. “That the small vessel be manned with a number not exceeding thirty men. “That the whole be included in the number of fifteen hundred men, ordered to be raised in this colony... “That they receive the same bounty and pay as the land forces...”
The Rhode Island General Assembly was one of the thirteen colonial legislatures that rejected British rule in the American War of Independence. The General Assembly was the first legislative body during the war to seriously consider independence from Great Britain. On May 4, 1776, five months before the Continental Congress formally adopted the United States Declaration of Independence, Rhode Island became the first colony of what would soon be the future United States to legally leave the British Empire. William Ellery and the first chancellor of Brown University Stephen Hopkins were signatories to the Declaration of Independence for Rhode Island.
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Wikipedia