| Robert D. Phillips (D) represents District 51 in Woonsocket and Cumberland. First elected in November 2010, Representative Phillips was named a Deputy Majority Leader in January 2019. He is the first vice chair of the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee and is member of the House Corporations Committee, the House Education Committee, the House Rules Committee, and the House Small Business Committee.
In 2024, the House passed legislation sponsored by Representative Phillips that would provide for industry-specific recognition, prevention, and reporting of human trafficking as part of commercial driver instruction.
He introduced a resolution in 2023 and then chaired a House commission that studied the feasibility of placing solar panels on Rhode Island's Interstate highways. The commission issued a report in 2024.
In 2021 and 2022, Representative Phillips co-chaired the Special Commission on Reapportionment, which submitted the legislation that altered legislative district boundaries. The state constitution calls for the General Assembly to reapportion its districts, as well as the two congressional districts, after each 10-year federal census.
Representative Phillips sponsored successful legislation in 2018 to make the Division of Motor Vehicles more efficient while also making life easier for commercial truck drivers. The first law permits the use of an electronic means of transmission of the medical certificate required for the issuance of a commercial driver's license. The second law eliminated the requirement of examinations for a renewal applicant whose commercial driver's license has expired for more than one year.
In 2017, he introduced an education reform law that established a process by which a virtual education plan may be established and used by school districts during inclement weather which would count as a school day.
Representative Phillips cosponsored laws making adjustments to the medical marijuana program to further ensure public safety, protecting employee wages, and supporting the arts in 2014. In 2012, he cosponsored a law prohibiting retailers of essential commodities from engaging in price gouging during a market emergency.
Representative Phillips is the former chairman of the Autumnfest Steering Committee and the Milk Fund. In 2023, he and his wife Nancy were chosen as the Grand Marshals of the Autumnfest Parade. He is member of the St. Jude's Children Research Hospital's Woonsocket Committee, and is the past president of the Woonsocket Jaycees. He previously served on the Tax Assessors Board of Review.
A substitute teacher, Representative Phillips earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Rhode Island in 2005.
He was born on May 29, 1956. He and his wife, Nancy, are the parents of a son, Matthew, and have two grandchildren, Devin and Skylar. |