Representative Patricia A. Serpa
Chair, House Oversight Committee
Second Vice Chair, House Rules Committee
Member, House Conduct Committee
Member, House Corporations Committee
Patricia A. Serpa (D) has represented District 27 in West Warwick, Coventry and Warwick since first being elected in 2006. She is the chair of the House Oversight Committee, second vice chair of the House Rules committee, and a member of the House Conduct Committee and the House Corporations Committee.
As chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight since May 2016, Representative Serpa has continuously investigated several prominent failures within multiple state agencies.
Her work on the committee led her to sponsor a law during the 2024 session that establishes rules and regulations for non-emergency medical transportation. The law comes in the wake of several high-profile incidents with Medical Transportation Management Inc., the company that has been responsible for coordinating transportation services for Medicaid beneficiaries.
A strong proponent of election reform, she sponsored a new law in 2024 allowing independent voters in primary elections to automatically disaffiliate. She also introduced legislation that became law this year that extends the “lookback" period for impaired driving offenses from five years to 10 years.
Representative Serpa chaired a special legislative commission tasked with making a comprehensive study and providing recommendations for changes to the merit system of personnel administration. The panel's work led to a new law in 2024 that makes several changes to the ways state agencies hire employees.
In 2022, she sponsored a new law that overhauls and reforms the state's purchasing policies and processes. In 2021, she sponsored a law to give compensation to innocent people who have spent time behind bars but were later released when new evidence showed they were not guilty. She also sponsored a new law that prohibits the use of a school district's listserv to distribute any political advertisement, invitation, and/or propaganda.
In 2020, she sponsored a law that prohibits the manufacturing, transfer, purchase or possessing of any plastic, fiberglass or 3-D printed gun, as well as “ghost guns," untraceable guns and undetectable guns
In 2017, Representative Serpa successfully sponsored legislation that mandates insurance coverage for medically necessary fertility services when a medical treatment may cause iatrogenic infertility.
Representative Serpa spent six years on the West Warwick School Committee from 2000 to 2006. She is an associate member of the West Warwick Democratic Town Committee and is involved with the Sons of Italy, Vince Lombardi Lodge, Defenders of Animals, and the West Warwick Lions Club.
A retired public school educator and admissions officer, she holds a master's degree in education from Providence College after earning her bachelor's degree in the same study at Mount St. Joseph College. She lives in West Warwick.