After more than 9 years of having the honor of representing the people of the 13th Worcester District, Bob has established a strong foundation of experience and has built relationships with colleagues from across the Commonwealth to sponsor legislation important to constituents, whether in the City of Worcester or the Town of Paxton.

On Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009, Bob was appointed House Chair of the Joint Committee on Public Service, to help lead the committee to address such challenging issues as collective bargaining for state employees, salaries, civil service, and retirement of public employees, and pension reform, which was taken up early in this, the 186th Session of the General Court of Massachusetts. On Tuesday, June 16, 2009, "An act providing responsible reforms in the pension system" which reforms public employee pensions, was signed into law by Governor Patrick. As House Chair of the Joint Committee on Public Service, Bob led the committee to address and end the abuses which have plagued our public employee system for years. For a link to Bob's "As I See It" article in the Telegram & Gazette about this reform measure, please click here.
This year, more pension reform will be taken up before his Committee. In addition, challenging issues as creditable service, disability, investment restrictions, and Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), and veteran's issues will be debated this session.
Locally, Bob continues to focus on issues important to Central Massachusetts and the 40,000 people of the 13th Worcester district, such as affordable housing, public education, green energy, and economic development.