Rhode Island Senate President William Irons criticized House Speaker William Murphy for failing to improve the transparency of the General Assembly. Appearing on the Ch36 television show "A Lively Experiment", Irons said of Speaker Murphy and Majority Leader Gordon Fox, "they say one thing and do another." Referring to calls to reform Rhode Island politics, Irons pointed out that the House had added problematic words to separation of powers legislation. He criticized the addition of language mandating that the General Assembly retained full legislative power and commented that "the other words are problematic." Continuing, he said that "this new wording has created a whole new dynamic....it could be stricken."
Irons furthermore pointed out that the House had not approved a bill mandating an audit of legislative spending, refused to release staff job attendance information, and would not equalize representation on the Joint Committee on Legislative Services between the House and Senate. Complaining about the House's failure to release staff attendance information even though the staff consists of state workers, Irons described the House actions as an "obfuscation".
