On May 7, the Senate passed my bill (2024 -- S 2457) that would give Rhode Island Family Court concurrent jurisdiction on juvenile cases arising from military bases and installations located in Rhode Island. I introduced this legislation in coordination with the Department of Defense. It's especially timely given the recent news about the new NOAA facility and the intention of the Coast Guard to expand their operations at Naval Station Newport. Currently, military bases are subject to exclusive federal jurisdiction, which means that all juveniles involved in cases end up in the federal system, which doesn’t have all the support services and diversion programs that we have in Rhode Island. This bill allows Family Court to handle the cases it was designed for and keeps these cases out of a federal system that the Department of Defense agrees is ill-suited to handle them.