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RI Congressional Leaders Discuss Hot Button Issues at Chamber Breakfast
The Grand Ballroom at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick was filled with more than 500 Chamber members for our annual Congressional Breakfast this past Monday, June 12. Thank you to Rhode Island's Congressional delegation and our Presenting Sponsor Citizens for making the event possible and for their support of the Chamber's work on behalf of the businesses and communities in our state.
The Congressional leaders spoke about various hot button issues, including: interest rates, inflation, artificial intelligence, the war in Ukraine, the banking industry, economic development and more. Former Congressman and new President and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation David Cicilline received recognition from the Chamber for his many years of public service. We also invited him to the stage to ask questions of his former Congressional colleagues.
We are also grateful for the 30 participants of the Rhode Island Foundation’s Equity Leadership Initiative (ELI) who attended the breakfast. The vision for ELI is to cultivate, mentor, and seek access for individuals of color from across sectors, and to build a diverse pipeline of leaders of color in positions of influence in Rhode Island. In support of this vision, we invited ELI participants to be seated at each of our corporate tables to connect with our members and participate in the event.
Catch up on what our Congressional leaders had to say below.On the health of the banking sector, Magaziner said one of the “fixes” is to diminish the concentration of risk, while Reed suggested more “stress tests” by the central bank on financial institutions.
The failure of three regional banks back in March – most notably the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank – was not only a result of mismanagement, but of digital contagion via social media platforms, the panelists said.
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“We could get into a very unfortunate, toxic cycle of our asset values declining,” added Whitehouse. “I don’t see the banks pulling away as much [as I see] more projects fall apart.”