Rhode Island’s General Assembly passed H7163 on June 16, 2026 and sent it to Gov. Dan McKee, a first-in-the-nation bill that would bar the state from joining the federal §25F scholarship tax credit unless both the legislature and the governor approve. McKee has not said whether he will sign it, and the state’s participation remains undecided.
Rhode Island’s General Assembly has passed a first-in-the-nation measure aimed squarely at the federal Scholarship Tax Credit. On June 16, 2026, lawmakers transmitted H7163, with its Senate companion S2139, to Governor Dan McKee (D), a bill that prohibits Rhode Island from participating in the §25F scholarship-granting-organization tax credit unless both the General Assembly and the governor approve. The House passed it 57 to 13 and the Senate 34 to 4, with Rep. Susan Donovan and Sen. Sam Bell as lead sponsors. As of its transmittal the bill is not yet law: McKee has until late June to veto it or let it take effect, and his office said he was reviewing it.
The bill’s official title leaves little doubt about its purpose. It “prohibits participation in federal school voucher tax credit for contributions to scholarship-granting organizations unless both the general assembly and the governor approve such participation.” It references the enacting federal provision directly, Pub. L. 119-21, §70411 (2025), which created §25F. That credit lets individual taxpayers claim a dollar-for-dollar federal credit of up to $1,700 for donations to qualified Scholarship Granting Organizations, with the program taking effect January 1, 2027. The practical effect of the Rhode Island bill, if enacted, would be to remove the governor’s ability to enroll the state on his own and to require an act of the legislature first.
McKee has not tipped his hand. He has said he is “not a voucher guy” but wants to see Treasury’s forthcoming regulations before deciding whether Rhode Island should participate at all. That posture leaves the state’s §25F status genuinely undecided, and the pending bill would gate any future decision behind the General Assembly. It is the most explicit version yet of a tactic other Democratic-led states have reached for: shaping or constraining how, or whether, a state plugs into the federal credit. Rhode Island’s approach echoes Vermont’s H.933, which sought to condition its opt-in, and fits the broader question of whether states can add their own limits to the program that we examine in our analysis of §25F as a federal floor or ceiling.
The Rhode Island move runs in the opposite direction from the wave of opt-ins elsewhere. Republican governors across the country have enrolled their states, and even some Democratic governors, including New York’s Kathy Hochul, have signaled intent to participate, while others have declined outright. The opposition that has organized against §25F, from teachers’ unions to congressional Democrats pushing repeal, is detailed in our coverage of who opposes the credit. Rhode Island is the first state to translate that opposition into a structural barrier on the opt-in itself rather than a flat refusal by the governor.
What happens next is procedural but consequential. McKee can sign the bill, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature; if it takes effect, Rhode Island would be the first state to legally require both branches to agree before joining §25F. For families and prospective scholarship organizations in the state, the bill does not by itself decide participation, it decides who gets to decide. We are tracking the governor’s action and Rhode Island’s status on our Rhode Island state page and the national participation map, and will update this post when McKee acts.
