Rhode Island attorney general asks Senate for six FTEs, cites federal litigation and public-health recoveries

The attorney general appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance on April 3 to present the Office of the Attorney General's FY2025 supplemental and FY2026 budget request, focusing on a proposal to add six full-time equivalent positions funded from the office's legal fee recovery fund.

The attorney general told senators the request is not for general-revenue dollars and said, "The $1,200,000 will come from our legal fee recovery fund," adding the office will cover the cost itself if necessary. He said the additional lawyers are needed to handle ongoing federal litigation and other work that protects the state's fiscal health, health care access and consumer protections.

The request is part of House Bill 5076, the omnibus appropriations measure for FY2026 that the committee had on its agenda for the hearing. The committee recorded the bill as up for hearing; no vote on HB 5076 was taken during this session.

Why it matters: the attorney general described recent, high-profile litigation that he said required extra staff and resources. He recounted that the office helped obtain a temporary restraining order after an Office of Management and Budget memorandum briefly paused federal funds, an action he said threatened roughly one-third of the state's budget. He also said his office secured $31,000,000 in public-health funding the federal administration had terminated and that the work required lawyers,…