---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO MOTOR AND OTHER VEHICLES -- MISCELLANEOUS RULES"
description: "Restores law enforcement discretion, allowing officers to issue a verbal warning when appropriate or pursue misdemeanor or felony charges in more egregious cases where a child is left unattended in a motor vehicle."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2026"
identifier: "SB 3135"
citation: "Rhode Island SB 3135 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Burke", "Dimitri", "LaMountain", "McKenney", "Quezada", "Raptakis", "Thompson"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 14
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2026-03-20"
last_action: "2026-06-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/97387110-b4f8-48b1-a8e6-d8da5bb3ac09"
source_url: "https://status.rilegislature.gov/"
source_hash: "8568d326f15001c0ad316a0d6d0257666532cbdf3b23aee19d92ad971ac2bcff"
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 3135 (2026) — AN ACT RELATING TO MOTOR AND OTHER VEHICLES -- MISCELLANEOUS RULES

Restores law enforcement discretion, allowing officers to issue a verbal warning when appropriate or pursue misdemeanor or felony charges in more egregious cases where a child is left unattended in a motor vehicle.

## Version chain

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

1. **3135** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText26/SenateText26/S3135.pdf)

## Votes

- Passage — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- IN CONCURRENCE — **69–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Burke — primary (person)
- Dimitri — primary (person)
- LaMountain — primary (person)
- McKenney — primary (person)
- Quezada — primary (person)
- Raptakis — primary (person)
- Thompson — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2026-03-20** 03/20/2026 Introduced, referred to Senate Judiciary `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2026-04-03** 04/03/2026 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (04/09/2026)
- **2026-04-09** 04/09/2026 Committee recommended measure be held for further study `committee-failure`
- **2026-05-30** 05/30/2026 Scheduled for consideration (06/02/2026)
- **2026-06-02** 06/02/2026 Committee recommends passage `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-06-02** 06/02/2026 Placed on Senate Calendar (06/04/2026) `reading-3`
- **2026-06-04** 06/04/2026 Senate read and passed `passage`
- **2026-06-05** 06/05/2026 Referred to House Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2026-06-06** 06/06/2026 Scheduled for consideration (06/08/2026)
- **2026-06-08** 06/08/2026 Committee recommends passage in concurrence `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2026-06-08** 06/08/2026 Placed on House Calendar (06/10/2026) `reading-3`
- **2026-06-10** 06/10/2026 House passed in concurrence `passage`
- **2026-06-18** 06/18/2026 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2026-06-23** 06/23/2026 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/97387110-b4f8-48b1-a8e6-d8da5bb3ac09`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).