Senator Joshua Miller
Senate Democratic Policy Chairman
Chairman, Senate Committee on Health & Human Services
Member, Senate Committee on Environment & Agriculture
Joshua Miller is a Democrat representing District 28 (Cranston,
Providence) in the Rhode Island Senate.
First elected to the Senate in
November 2006, he has been particularly active in health care reform
efforts, as well as environmental initiatives. He chairs the Committee on
Health & Human Services and previously served as chairman of the Committee
on Corporations, now known as the Committee on Commerce.
Sen. Miller
has been involved in legislative efforts to make health insurance more
affordable to ratepayers and employers, and sponsored a bill that
successfully eliminated health status as a factor in insurance rates. He
sponsored the far reaching legislation to control health care costs,
increase transparency, and improve quality, including provisions to
establish standards and incentives for transitioning from traditional
fee-for-service payments to alternative models.
Sen. Miller was a
driving force behind enactment of legislation providing parity in coverage
of mental health and substance use disorders. He championed a package of
legislation addressing the mental health system, aimed at improving
preventative services and treatment, as well as a package of legislation
addressing the opioid overdose crisis. Recently, he sponsored legislation to
establish a pilot program for harm reduction centers in Rhode Island. That
measure was signed into law.
He was a member of the Governor's
Overdose Commission and the Governor's Reinventing Medicaid Task Force. He
has also served as Chairman of the Special Commission to Study Health Plan
Patient Liability Provisions on Access to Healthcare and Provider Financial
Condition, and the Special Senate Commission to Study the Challenges Facing
Commercial Development and the Redevelopment of Historic Buildings in Rhode
Island. He previously served as Chairman of the Joint Legislative Commission
to Study the Integration of Primary Care and Behavioral Health and the
Special Legislative Commission to Study Building Structured Parking at the
Garrahy Judicial Complex.
Sen. Miller chaired commissions reviewing
the prospect of legalizing marijuana for recreational use. He sponsored the
law, enacted in 2011, decriminalizing possession of small quantities of
marijuana, and has since sponsored bills to legalize and regulate marijuana
in the state.
Sen. Miller has been honored by Rhode Island Communities
for Addiction Recovery Efforts (RI CARES) for his frequent advocacy for
treatment for those struggling with addiction, as well as the Mental Health
Association of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Association of Nurse
Anesthetists.
He has sponsored legislation to enact the provisions of
the federal Affordable Care Act on the state level to ensure the protection
of Rhode Islanders health care. He has proposed using Medicaid funds to
provide housing services to the chronically homeless.
In 2019, the
Rhode Island Health Center Association honored Sen. Miller with its John H.
Chafee Healthcare Leadership Award. The award recognizes an individual,
group or organization whose work embodies the spirit of the late U.S. Sen.
John H. Chafee, demonstrating his commitment to strengthening the health
care safety net and providing true justice and equity in health care for
all.
Sen. Miller has also sponsored legislation to ban the possession,
sale or transfer of assault weapons except those grandfathered in and
properly registered, as well as a measure banning “straw purchases" of
firearms.
Sen. Miller is a graduate of Hope High School, and he
attended the University of Rhode Island.
The owner and operator
of several Providence restaurants, he is past president of the Providence
Downtown Merchants Association. He has served on the boards of the Rhode
Island Economic Development Corporation, the Providence/Warwick Convention
and Visitors Bureau and the Rhode Island Hospitality and Tourism
Association. He has also served on a number of nonprofit boards and in local
community organizations.