---
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: "HB 8094"
citation: "Rhode Island HB 8094 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Dawson"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 11
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2026-02-27"
last_action: "2026-06-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/24d2aaf2-a241-4048-8a1b-b02904a4cb75"
source_url: "https://status.rilegislature.gov/"
source_hash: "fa2588b63926c29af812946b102ffc8c11367434a87ca11a0dd3014a4af8ccab"
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 8094 (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. **8094** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText26/HouseText26/H8094.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **70–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Dawson — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2026-02-27** 02/27/2026 Introduced, referred to House Judiciary `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2026-04-24** 04/24/2026 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (04/28/2026)
- **2026-04-28** 04/28/2026 Committee recommended measure be held for further study `committee-failure`
- **2026-06-06** 06/06/2026 Scheduled for consideration (06/08/2026)
- **2026-06-08** 06/08/2026 Committee recommends passage `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 read and passed `passage`
- **2026-06-10** 06/10/2026 Placed on the Senate Consent Calendar (06/11/2026) `reading-3`
- **2026-06-11** 06/11/2026 Senate 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/24d2aaf2-a241-4048-8a1b-b02904a4cb75`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).