Paiva Weed: Senate will focus on poverty this year

Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed said her chamber will focus on addressing poverty as a bottom-up strategy to fixing what ails Rhode Island’s economy this year.

“The Senate’s focus this session on the economy will be inextricably intertwined with the causes of poverty,” she said at a State House vigil yesterday to call attention to poverty in Rhode Island.  “We can’t move the economy forward without addressing the very issues that underline poverty.”

She said the vigil and a screening later in the day of Inequality For All “will set a tone for the year and the message will be carried with us as we work to meet the significant challenges ahead.”

Steve Ahlquist has the video: