---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO HIGHWAYS -- ABANDONMENT BY TOWNS (Provides that road abandonments by municipalities be properly recorded in land evidence records.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO HIGHWAYS -- ABANDONMENT BY TOWNS (Provides that road abandonments by municipalities be properly recorded in land evidence records.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2023"
identifier: "HB 5596"
citation: "Rhode Island HB 5596 (2023)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Cities & Towns", "Dept. of Business Regulation", "Highways", "Land/Landfills", "Roads"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Alzate", "Diaz", "Giraldo", "Potter", "Solomon", "Voas"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 14
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2023-02-15"
last_action: "2023-06-14"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/97257413-1dd8-4e47-9db8-3063c5092ee0"
source_url: "https://status.rilegislature.gov/"
source_hash: "f8800181b0361ab46b7bce4c732422b62c46c25d419edef1c3bc7eeec4d7cd9d"
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 5596 (2023) — AN ACT RELATING TO HIGHWAYS -- ABANDONMENT BY TOWNS (Provides that road abandonments by municipalities be properly recorded in land evidence records.)

## Version chain

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

1. **5596** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText23/HouseText23/H5596.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **72–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Alzate — primary (person)
- Diaz — primary (person)
- Giraldo — primary (person)
- Potter — primary (person)
- Solomon — primary (person)
- Voas — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2023-02-15** 02/15/2023 Introduced, referred to House Municipal Government & Housing `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2023-03-03** 03/03/2023 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (03/07/2023)
- **2023-03-07** 03/07/2023 Committee recommended measure be held for further study `committee-failure`
- **2023-04-14** 04/14/2023 Scheduled for consideration (04/19/2023)
- **2023-04-19** 04/19/2023 Committee recommends passage `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-04-21** 04/21/2023 Placed on House Calendar (04/25/2023) `reading-3`
- **2023-04-25** 04/25/2023 House read and passed `passage`
- **2023-05-15** 05/15/2023 Referred to Senate Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2023-05-26** 05/26/2023 Scheduled for consideration (05/30/2023)
- **2023-05-30** 05/30/2023 Committee recommends passage in concurrence `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-06-07** 06/07/2023 Placed on the Senate Consent Calendar (06/13/2023) `reading-3`
- **2023-06-08** 06/08/2023 Senate passed in concurrence `passage`
- **2023-06-08** 06/08/2023 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2023-06-14** 06/14/2023 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/97257413-1dd8-4e47-9db8-3063c5092ee0`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).