PROVIDENCE, R.I.-- A bill creating a new state Executive Office of Commerce is among roughly four dozen pieces of legislation that await Governor Chafee's action late Monday, following General Assembly approval earlier this month.
The measures stand to automatically become the law of the land at midnight, when the clock officially ends for Chafee to take action.
A number are duplicate proposals that he has already signed or allowed to pass into law without his signature, such as a request for House Speaker Gordon D. Fox to wed state Rep. Frank Ferri, D-Warwick and his partner, Anthony Caparco, on Aug. 1, the first day that gay marriage is recognized in Rhode Island.
The bill creating a new Executive Office of Commerce -- which would serve as the state's primary agency on economy and business matters -- is perhaps the most high profile on the list.
Chafee has said he is opposed to any significant overhaul of state government, saying that it would take time and resources away from his administration's efforts to revive the state's economy.
Under the proposal, the new agency would be headed by a governor-appointed secretary of commerce.
It would assume the duties of the state Department of Business Regulation, starting Feb. 1, 2015. By April 1, 2015, it would take over regulatory reform, housing and community development functions currently assigned to the Department of Administration.
The new office would also significantly oversee the state Economic Development Corporation, the quasi-public agency that has served as Rhode Island's defacto economic agency since it was created by lawmakers in 1995.
The EDC would be renamed the Commerce Corporation but it would continue to manage various state loan and tax incentive programs for businesses.
The governor has six days -- not including Sundays -- from the time a bill is officially transmitted by the legislature to his office to either sign it, veto it or let it pass into law without his signature.
So far, Chafee's office has not said which bills it will take action on by Monday's deadline.