---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR AND LABOR RELATIONS -- WORKERS' COMPENSATION--BENEFITS (Repeals a provision of the workers' compensation law that provides that for injuries on and after July 1, 2023, \"material hindrance\" includes only compensable injuries causing a greater than sixty-five percent (65%) degree of functional impairment.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR AND LABOR RELATIONS -- WORKERS' COMPENSATION--BENEFITS (Repeals a provision of the workers' compensation law that provides that for injuries on and after July 1, 2023, \"material hindrance\" includes only compensable injuries causing a greater than sixty-five percent (65%) degree of functional impairment.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "SB 917"
citation: "Rhode Island SB 917 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Labor", "Workers Compensation"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Fogarty"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 12
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-05-25"
last_action: "2017-07-21"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b804403c-11cf-4add-8be3-5e15ffeb44c4"
source_url: "http://status.rilin.state.ri.us/"
source_hash: "3a18a056414f6bdcd23fd7359ba9a1540d5113ea9d91ea0f20ac77423046a535"
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 SB 917 (2017) — AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR AND LABOR RELATIONS -- WORKERS' COMPENSATION--BENEFITS (Repeals a provision of the workers' compensation law that provides that for injuries on and after July 1, 2023, "material hindrance" includes only compensable injuries causing a greater than sixty-five percent (65%) degree of functional impairment.)

## Version chain

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

1. **917 SUB A** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText17/SenateText17/S0917A.pdf)

## Votes

- IN CONCURRENCE — **68–0** (pass) · legislature
- WORKERS' COMPENSATION BENEFITS — **34–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Fogarty — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-05-25** 05/25/2017 Introduced, referred to Senate Labor `referral-committee, introduction`
- **2017-05-26** 05/26/2017 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (05/31/2017)
- **2017-05-31** 05/31/2017 Committee recommended indefinite postponement
- **2017-05-31** 05/31/2017 Committee recommended Substitute A be held for further study
- **2017-06-16** 06/16/2017 Scheduled for consideration (06/21/2017)
- **2017-06-21** 06/21/2017 Committee recommends passage of Sub A `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-06-21** 06/21/2017 Placed on Senate Calendar (06/28/2017)
- **2017-06-28** 06/28/2017 Senate passed Sub A `passage`
- **2017-06-29** 06/29/2017 Placed on the House Consent Calendar (06/29/2017)
- **2017-06-29** 06/29/2017 House passed Sub A in concurrence `passage`
- **2017-07-19** 07/19/2017 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2017-07-21** 07/21/2017 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/b804403c-11cf-4add-8be3-5e15ffeb44c4`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).