Senator V. Susan Sosnowski
Chair, Senate Committee on Commerce
Member, Senate Committee on Finance
Member, Senate Committee on Labor
V. Susan Sosnowski is a Democrat representing District 37 (South
Kingstown) in the Rhode Island Senate.
First elected to the Senate in
November 1996, she previously served as moderator for Richmond Voting
District 1 in 1984 and as a member of the South Kingstown Planning Board
from 1993 to 1996.
Sen. Sosnowski has a lengthy list of
accomplishments from her time in the legislature, including a number of
landmark proposals related to public health and safety.
She was Senate
sponsor of the Public Health and Workplace Safety Act, which took effect in
2005 and bans smoking in most public places in Rhode Island. She also
sponsored a prohibition on hand-held cell phone use by motorists, which took
effect in 2018, and legislation requiring the use of ignition interlock
systems for people convicted of impaired driving, which became law in 2014.
Additionally, she sponsored the Safe Patient Handling Act of 2006, a measure
aimed at reducing the number of injuries suffered by patients and caregivers
in health care facilities.
Sen. Sosnowski has been a leading voice on
issues related to Rhode Island's coastal communities, and she has championed
numerous pieces of legislation aimed at supporting the state's fishing and
seafood industries. She was the Senate sponsor of a 2014 law establishing
Rhode Island-style calamari as the state's official appetizer and another
measure allowing for the dockside sale of fish directly to consumers.
She has also been an active supporter of environmental action and renewable
energy in Rhode Island. She worked on legislation enabling the Block Island
Wind Farm to proceed. She sponsored legislation creating the Renewable
Energy Growth Program and phasing in more biodiesel into home heating oil.
She helped lead a successful effort to make a phase-out of cesspools part of
state law and was the prime sponsor of the Water Use and Government
Efficiency Act of 2009.
She has also advanced multiple bills to aid
Rhode Island farmers and small businesses, including legislation allowing
breweries and distilleries to sell their products to on-site visitors.
Sen. Sosnowski was the Senate sponsor of a measure included in the state
budget to create a separate Board of Trustees for the University of Rhode
Island. She also sponsored a law requiring higher education institutions
create plans to address mental health of students.
Sen. Sosnowski's
work in the General Assembly has resulted in awards and recognitions from a
number of organizations, including the Rhode Island Clean Water
Association's 2021 Legislator of the Year honors; the Rhode Island Farm
Bureau's Navigator Award; the Hospital Association of Rhode Island's Francis
R. Dietz Award for Public Service; the Audubon Society of Rhode Island's
Legislator of the Year award; the Environmental Protection Agency's Lifetime
Achievement Award; the American Heart Association's Tracey A. Kennedy
Leadership in Advocacy Award; and honors as one of Mothers Against Drunk
Driving's Legislators of the Year.
Sen. Sosnowski was born on Dec.
20, 1955. She and her husband, Michael, have four children, Ronald, Deborah,
Stephen and Michael Jr.
Raised in Richmond, she graduated from Chariho
Regional High School and attended the Ocean State Business Institute. She is
a self-employed farmer at Sosnowski Farms.
Sen. Sosnowski is a member
of the Northeast Organic Farming Association; the Richmond Grange; the South
Kingstown Democratic Town Committee; and the South Kingstown Elks #1899. She
is a member and organist at the Queens River Baptist Church.
Organizations of which she was previously a member include the South
Kingstown Farmers' Market; Rhode Island Farm Bureau; Clean Water Finance
Agency; Coastal Resources Management Council; and Agricultural Advisory
Committee to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. She
served on the Governor's Advisory Council on the Environment in 1997.