---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO MOTOR AND OTHER VEHICLES - SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION OF LICENSES - VIOLATIONS (Allows a person to make satisfactory arrangements for the payment of motor vehicle fines or costs, and would permit a person to request an ability to pay hearing before a license is suspended for failure to pay such fines or costs.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO MOTOR AND OTHER VEHICLES - SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION OF LICENSES - VIOLATIONS (Allows a person to make satisfactory arrangements for the payment of motor vehicle fines or costs, and would permit a person to request an ability to pay hearing before a license is suspended for failure to pay such fines or costs.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "SB 78"
citation: "Rhode Island SB 78 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Courts", "Fees"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Ciccone", "Felag", "Lombardi", "Lombardo", "McCaffrey"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 15
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2019-01-16"
last_action: "2019-07-15"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d79769a7-de24-4413-88c0-c54e1154ca89"
source_url: "http://status.rilin.state.ri.us/"
source_hash: "ce540938c4eb91b58f972609f8af9c978a97c9ca389236bcd3de333948ccbbc1"
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 78 (2019) — AN ACT RELATING TO MOTOR AND OTHER VEHICLES - SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION OF LICENSES - VIOLATIONS (Allows a person to make satisfactory arrangements for the payment of motor vehicle fines or costs, and would permit a person to request an ability to pay hearing before a license is suspended for failure to pay such fines or costs.)

## Version chain

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

1. **78** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText19/SenateText19/S0078.pdf)

## Votes

- IN CONCURRENCE — **64–0** (pass) · upper
- Passage — **37–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Ciccone — primary (person)
- Felag — primary (person)
- Lombardi — primary (person)
- Lombardo — primary (person)
- McCaffrey — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-16** 01/16/2019 Introduced, referred to Senate Judiciary `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2019-02-22** 02/22/2019 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (02/26/2019)
- **2019-02-26** 02/26/2019 Committee recommended measure be held for further study
- **2019-05-31** 05/31/2019 Scheduled for consideration (06/04/2019)
- **2019-06-04** 06/04/2019 Committee recommends passage `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-06-05** 06/05/2019 Placed on Senate Calendar (06/11/2019)
- **2019-06-11** 06/11/2019 Senate read and passed `passage`
- **2019-06-12** 06/12/2019 Referred to House Finance `referral-committee`
- **2019-06-22** 06/22/2019 Committee transferred to House Judiciary
- **2019-06-22** 06/22/2019 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (06/25/2019)
- **2019-06-25** 06/25/2019 Committee recommends passage in concurrence `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-06-27** 06/27/2019 Placed on House Calendar (06/28/2019)
- **2019-06-28** 06/28/2019 House passed in concurrence `passage`
- **2019-07-11** 07/11/2019 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2019-07-15** 07/15/2019 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/d79769a7-de24-4413-88c0-c54e1154ca89`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).