---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO BUSINESSES AND PROFESSIONS -- VETERINARY PRACTICE"
description: "Authorizes veterinarians to establish a client-patient relationship through electronic means, subject to limitations and requirements such as Vet making a good faith effort to determine if care should be provided through telemedicine instead of in person."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2026"
identifier: "HB 7020"
citation: "Rhode Island HB 7020 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Baginski", "Brien", "Lima", "Serpa", "Solomon"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 11
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2026-01-09"
last_action: "2026-06-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/f85d9037-fa45-427d-9480-28eeb7aafece"
source_url: "https://status.rilegislature.gov/"
source_hash: "b2c72686971eef6f87778d6b080ada848b2f11205a22bf76b0cf20c8d0635db8"
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 7020 (2026) — AN ACT RELATING TO BUSINESSES AND PROFESSIONS -- VETERINARY PRACTICE

Authorizes veterinarians to establish a client-patient relationship through electronic means, subject to limitations and requirements such as Vet making a good faith effort to determine if care should be provided through telemedicine instead of in person.

## Version chain

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

1. **7020** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText26/HouseText26/H7020.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **70–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Baginski — primary (person)
- Brien — primary (person)
- Lima — primary (person)
- Serpa — primary (person)
- Solomon — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2026-01-09** 01/09/2026 Introduced, referred to House Corporations `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2026-01-16** 01/16/2026 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (01/20/2026)
- **2026-01-20** 01/20/2026 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 (06/09/2026) `reading-3`
- **2026-06-09** 06/09/2026 House read and passed `passage`
- **2026-06-10** 06/10/2026 Placed on Senate 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/f85d9037-fa45-427d-9480-28eeb7aafece`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).