---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO STATE AFFAIRS AND GOVERNMENT - ADMINISTRATIVE PENALTIES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLATIONS (Increases the administrative penalties that the director of DEM may impose for violations of environmental regulations up to five thousand dollars ($5,000).)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO STATE AFFAIRS AND GOVERNMENT - ADMINISTRATIVE PENALTIES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLATIONS (Increases the administrative penalties that the director of DEM may impose for violations of environmental regulations up to five thousand dollars ($5,000).)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 5609"
citation: "Rhode Island HB 5609 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Administration", "Dept. of Environmental Management", "State Affairs"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Fogarty", "Hearn", "Kazarian", "Maldonado", "Winfield"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 14
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2017-03-01"
last_action: "2017-07-05"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/9fc1da19-488c-47b9-90e3-c0776b42faff"
source_url: "http://status.rilin.state.ri.us/"
source_hash: "ed8af615cd42198ff27bbce7319c07cd1c05d62a9004ef2eb16f4be533379ce8"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ri"]
---

# Rhode Island HB 5609 (2017) — AN ACT RELATING TO STATE AFFAIRS AND GOVERNMENT - ADMINISTRATIVE PENALTIES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLATIONS (Increases the administrative penalties that the director of DEM may impose for violations of environmental regulations up to five thousand dollars ($5,000).)

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **5609** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText17/HouseText17/H5609.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **62–7** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Fogarty — primary (person)
- Hearn — primary (person)
- Kazarian — primary (person)
- Maldonado — primary (person)
- Winfield — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-03-01** 03/01/2017 Introduced, referred to House Environment and Natural Resources `referral-committee, introduction`
- **2017-03-24** 03/24/2017 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (03/30/2017)
- **2017-03-30** 03/30/2017 Committee recommended measure be held for further study
- **2017-06-02** 06/02/2017 Scheduled for consideration (06/08/2017)
- **2017-06-08** 06/08/2017 Committee recommends passage `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-06-09** 06/09/2017 Placed on House Calendar (06/14/2017)
- **2017-06-14** 06/14/2017 House read and passed `passage`
- **2017-06-14** 06/14/2017 Referred to Senate Environment and Agriculture `referral-committee`
- **2017-06-16** 06/16/2017 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (06/21/2017)
- **2017-06-21** 06/21/2017 Committee recommends passage in concurrence `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-06-22** 06/22/2017 Placed on the Senate Consent Calendar (06/27/2017)
- **2017-06-27** 06/27/2017 Senate passed in concurrence `passage`
- **2017-06-29** 06/29/2017 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2017-07-05** 07/05/2017 Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/9fc1da19-488c-47b9-90e3-c0776b42faff`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).