Leader Filippi: RI GOP 2022 Convention Speech - JCLS

The past three years, I've had the pleasure of working with the Minority Leader up at the House of Representatives. It has been a seamless operation from political to policy. For eight years, this gentleman has worked tirelessly up at the House of Representatives, representing all of us. So it is my great pleasure to introduce Representative Blake Corley. In the House, I represent 15,000 of my leaders. Of the 10 Republicans in the House, we represent 150,000 Rhode Islanders. The House Minority Leader, this man here, the best man I know, he represents those 150,000 Rhode Islanders on the most important committee in state government, the Joint Committee on Legislative Services. It is the most important committee in state government because it affects all things. It controls the legislative process. All legislative staff, our lawyers, communications between legislators and constituents, the bills we submit are drafted, and our voting machines are controlled by the JCLS. It is fundamental to the legislative process. And that's why, in law, we establish this as a bipartisan public committee. But there is nothing public or bipartisan about it. The JCLS has not met in over 10 years. The committee that affects all things hasn't met in 10 years, but it manages to spend $50 million of your tax money per year. $50 million hasn't met in 10 years. And the House Minority Leader, despite being one of the five members of this phantom committee and representing 150,000 Rhode Islanders on that committee, 150,000 people, the House Minority Leader has been excluded from the operations of this committee. No meetings, no votes, no consensus, no notice, no communication. We read about what JCLS does, like all of you, in the paper. 150,000 Rhode Islanders represented by the House Minority Leader have had their representation stripped from them, taken by the Democratic establishment in this state. Your rights as citizens have been taken from you on the most important committee in this state, the thing that affects all things, run on the third floor of the Statehouse, in secret, just as if the Statehouse doors were locked to your elected representative. That's what's going on. It is a profound civil rights violation that occurs at the very heart of our lawmaking process. It contaminates the lawmaking process. It sullies it. It is of such constitutional magnitude that it is the most consequential issue in this state. It is a constitutional crisis at the highest levels of our government. The Senate President and the Speaker of the House, so the question is, alright, how do you spend 50 mil a year when you don't leave? Right? It's a question I had, I figured it out. Here's how it works. The Senate President and the Speaker of the House direct Governor McKee to issue, his administration, to issue a false certification that this requested payment was made with lawful authority. And then Treasurer Magaziner, he writes the checks. So it goes President and Speaker, false certification by Governor McKee's administration, Magaziner writes the checks. But yes, vote them out. And this isn't in theory. This happens every day. A million dollars a week of your money spent on who knows what. And each of Governor McKee, the Speaker, the Senate President, and Treasurer Magaziner, they could stop this tomorrow. The Speaker and the Senate President can simply call a meeting of the Joint Committee on Legislative Services. Legislative candidates, you call on them to do so. And you question why your opponent isn't. Why your opponent is staying silent in the face of this gross disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of Rhode Islanders right to representation in the highest levels of their government. Call them out. Governor McKee's administration could stop this tomorrow, simply stopping the false certification that these expenditures are lawful. Ashley Kalis, you're going to be a great governor. If there's anything I can do, you pick up the phone. Run for office. Run for office. You just hold on one second, sir. Call out Dan McKee for his administration's fraudulent certification of these KCLS expenditures. It is illegal. It is unconstitutional. It is a deprivation of the constitutional rights of all Rhode Islanders that their elected representatives are unlawfully excluded from this process. Call him out. Treasurer Magaziner, he legally writes these checks. He wants to go to Washington. And Alan Fung, you are a good man, and you are a loyal Republican, and I will have your back all the way to the end. If you ever need anything, you call. Treasurer Magaziner wants to go to Washington to defend democracy, yet he undermines it here in Rome. 150,000 Rhode Islanders disenfranchised by this process. Their elected representative by law has a right to sit on this committee, and he is denied. I was denied for four years, and they're most likely going to do it to this good man right here. It's hypocritical. Treasurer Magaziner is undermining democracy at home, here. He wants to go to Washington to protect it. Tell him to stop cutting the checks for this corrupt organization. Respect him. Each of these men can stop this constitutional uproar today and restore the civil rights of 150,000 Rhode Islanders that they have deprived, and they continue to deprive every single day. But they won't stop. I've asked. Instead, I've had to take their governor, the Senate president, the Speaker, the Treasurer, and a whole bunch of other people in this cast of characters to court. And we are currently engaged in what is going to soon become high-stakes litigation. And for anyone that's ever been involved with that, you know the type of time that entails. You know what this entails. And Attorney General Narone, he is now paying for their personal attorneys in this lawsuit. Not their official legal bills, let me be clear. Their personal attorneys. Multiple big downtown law firms. When you see the service of process sheet, you can't believe how many lawyers. They're all the best ones in the state. Versus me and Nick Gorman. Two country lawyers. Two and a half years of litigation. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in your tax bills. All to prevent the JCLS from leaving. We had a recent court victory where the court found that their exclusion of me as Minority Leader from the Joint Committee on Legislative Services is not a legislative act. They were not acting as legislators when they excluded me. So what does that mean? It means that the Attorney General should stop paying their legal bills. So naturally, I requested that. And three weeks ago, Attorney General Narone wrote me a six-page, single-spaced letter. Friends, any time a lawyer sends you a 12-page letter to explain a simple concept. He rejected my request that he cease paying for everyone's attorneys. And affirmed that he will in fact continue to fund their personal legal expenses in my lawsuit to stop this gross constitutional violation. Their personal legal bills. These are state-funded lawyers. They're being used to continue to disenfranchise 150,000 Rhode Islanders of their voice on the Joint Committee on Legislative Services. And it taints the process for us all. Charles Kalenda, where are you? Demand Peter Narone to take his thumb off the scales of justice. So now, given Attorney General Narone's decision. Funding this legal dream team against me and McBorne. It is clear that I can no longer be a representative. Because I cannot effectively do that and pursue this litigation. The Attorney General, his decision, made me make it impossible. There aren't enough hours in the day for me to effectively be a representative and do what needs to be done in this litigation. This is generational. I revere serving in the House. I cherish it. I will miss it dearly. But fixing JCLS is so much bigger than anything I could ever accomplish as a representative. Because it strikes at the heart of our representative system of government. 150,000 Rhode Islanders disenfranchised. Civil rights violations of a profound magnitude. And righting this great historical wrong is worth any sacrifice. Including me giving up this public service that I love. Do you think I'm leaving? I'm going into the biggest fight of my life. So I want you to ask yourself when you leave this room. When you leave here tonight. What are you willing to sacrifice for this state? Because your answer controls our future. Thank you Rhode Island. Thank you Republicans. I love everybody in here. You are awesome.