- Ted, welcome back.

It's good to see you.

The late Senate President Dominick Ruggerio was laid to rest on April 28th.

The following day, his colleagues gathered to elect his successor.

You've been reporting there was a lot of behind-the-scenes politicking in the days leading up to that vote.

- Oh, yes.

As we talked about before in this segment, Michelle, there were really three candidates we were all watching closely, majority leader Val Lawson, former majority leader Ryan Pearson, and Labor Committee chairman Frank Jacone.

So, in the days leading up to the vote, Lawson formed an alliance with Jacone to run as a ticket, and they said, by the Thursday before the vote, they had enough commitments to win, but they wouldn't release the list of those commitments, which led to some skepticism about whether those commitments were as solid as they were claiming, and all through the weekend, there were, you know, reports.

I was with my phone.

There was smoke coming out of it, there was so much going on, and we were hearing that maybe Pearson was gonna be able to put together the votes.

Could he overcome their efforts?

But in the end, Lawson had what she needed and the floor vote wasn't that close.

It was 24 votes for Lawson to be the new Senate President, eight for Pearson and four for Republican leader De La Cruz.

- And Senate Democrats also opted to choose the Labor Committee chairman Frank Jacone, a longtime Providence Democrat, as the new Senate Majority Leader, which was interesting because that was despite opposition from progressive groups who have criticized Jacone's views on the environment and social issues.

So we now have a new leadership team in place, and of course, the timing is critical for Senator Lawson.

- It is.

It's a tough time to take over leadership.

I mean, it's May now.

We're heading into the busiest stretch of the year for the general assembly.

You know, Lawson's gonna need to deal with the budget right away because the May revenue estimates will come in, which kicks off the final negotiations on that.

All sorts of important bills.

The assault weapons ban comes to mind.

We have the healthcare primary care crisis we've been talking about, lots of discussion about whether they should do more on that all while she just gets used to being Senate President and makes other choices.

- And the new Senate President has also been criticized because she has said she will not leave her day job.

She is the president of NEARI, the largest teachers' union in the state.

- Yes, this was a little bit of a surprise, Michelle.

I think some people had suggested that, if Lawson became the Senate President, she would step away as president of the teachers' union, but she's now saying she plans to keep both jobs for now.

John Marion from Common Cause, the good government group, has said that could pose some real conflicts of interest because the Senate President has such power over setting the agenda of what bills live and die, who gets what, and so that's a lot of power to have over the legislative process when you're also trying to advance the interests of your union.

- Sure.

Let's turn now to changes to federal policy that Republican leaders want to implement in Washington, D.C., and I wanna zero in on Headstart.

The ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, along with other groups, recently filed a lawsuit against President Trump's administration over what they describe as unlawful attempts to dismantle Headstart.

People probably know this program has been around since the mid-sixties, and it works with children who come from low-income families.

- And about 2,000 children currently, Michelle, ages zero to five.

It would be even more if there were enough seats.

There's a wait list for Headstart right now.

Leanne Barrett over at Rhode Island Kids Count, and they keep close tabs on the program, says she thinks that, if all those classes shut down, those families are gonna potentially need to leave school, leave work, because this is their form of childcare, and it's particularly concerning for families who have children with disabilities, when there's foster care, people experiencing homelessness.

So a lot of concern about what this would mean for those families.

- And Barrett's stressed that Headstart not only helps those children, but also their parents by helping them find jobs, housing, transportation, and working with them to help them finish their education.

- Well, and Michelle, this is not the only threat Headstart is facing right now.

So you have the immediate funding cut-off followed by the lawsuit, as you mentioned, but then you also have reports that the president might try to zero out funding for Headstart in his budget plan, and, of course, you have Republicans in Congress negotiating over where to find spending cuts to pay for their spending and tax cut package that's coming.

Again, Headstart seen as at least under some threat of losing funding there, so a lot of concern in that world right now.

- Yeah.

Lastly, I want to touch on Rhode Island US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is being heavily criticized for missing a vote on tariffs.

Where was he?

Why was he not there?

- So, April 30th, the Senate was planning a vote to eliminate Trump's tariff, revoke it, all the tariffs, and over the course of the day, leading up to the vote, some of the Capitol Hill reporters noticed that Sheldon Whitehouse and also actually Republican Mitch McConnell were missing the day's votes, and they said, "Where are they?

Are they gonna be there tonight?

'Cause this is gonna be close."

I, among others, asked White House's office, "Where is he?

Is he gonna be there?"

And they finally disclosed he was actually in South Korea unannounced, attending a conference on oceans.

It is a conference he's attended before.

He's gone to Panama and Norway for it in the past, but this was a time where being there kept him from the Senate, and when the vote finally came up, sure enough, it deadlocked 49 to 49.

Whitehouse would've been the deciding vote to advance that anti-tariff resolution out of the Senate and send it over to the House.

So, as you can imagine, with Democrats as frustrated as they are with President Trump, as concerned as they are about the tariffs, him being overseas unannounced at a conference rather than in the Senate to vote has led to a lot of backlash.

- Do you know if Whitehouse knew that going to South Korea would mean that he would miss this key vote?

- I don't think.

I certainly would imagine he planned this quite a while ago.

We haven't seen him yet 'cause he's been traveling back from Asia, but I did see a report from one Hill reporter, Michelle, who said that some of the rank and file senators were frustrated actually with Democratic leadership because they knew Whitehouse was gonna be away, and yet they agreed with Republican leaders to have the vote at that time, not at full strength.

So it'd be interesting to see how Whitehouse discusses this when he's back in the States.

- Yeah, a lot to watch here.

Good to see you, Ted.

- Good to see you.