Bobby believes that the government must live within its means and fights to hold the line on the state budget’s growth. He is the most senior member of the House’s Finance Committee, and strives to maintain high standards for government services like public safety and education, while maintaining a balanced budget WITHOUT raising taxes: in 2017 that meant solving a $1.2 billion budget shortfall but, along with his Republican colleagues, Bobby balanced the Commonwealth’s budget and did not raise your taxes. As Chair of the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission (JLARC), he is charged with ensuring state agencies are effectively and efficiently spending your tax dollars. Bobby is serious about these agencies being accountable, and in 2016 JLARC uncovered the grossly negligent spending of millions of dollars of Virginians’ hard-earned taxes by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership—an agency whose job and economic figures were cited time and time again by Governor McAuliffe.

Bobby strongly opposes sanctuary city policies, and has voted many times to protect Virginians from violent aliens who come here illegally by defunding localities that adopt these dangerous policies. He has fought to require law enforcement to determine every arrestee’s citizenship status, and also to halt state universities from accepting and harboring illegal aliens. Nonetheless, Bobby recognizes the value that LEGAL immigrants bring to our country and the Commonwealth. In fact, as Chairman of the Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee, Bobby sought to require the Dept. of Social Services to use already allocated money to provide these legal immigrants with the advice and support needed to integrate into Virginia and pursue their American Dream.

Having seen the problems experienced by states that opted to expand Medicaid based on unreliable promises of reimbursement from Washington, Bobby and House Republicans have and will continue to fight to ensure Virginia does not expand Medicaid. As Chairman of the Health, Welfare & Institutions Committee, Bobby works hard to encourage competition among healthcare providers in Virginia through steps like reforming the Certificate of Public Need laws: actions that provide free-market solutions that will reduce costs, promote innovation and increase access.

Bobby has worked to reduce taxes on hard-working Virginia families. He has supported legislation that would reduce the sales tax on food, eliminate the hurtful estate tax, increase the per-child tax credit for educational purposes, and create long-term tax credits for health insurance for senior citizens.

As a former public school teacher, Bobby knows what our schools need, and he views education as the gateway to jobs and opportunities for all children in the Commonwealth. In 2017, he voted for an additional $13 million toward K-12 education while increasing local school divisions’ flexibility in allocating the funds. He supported a 2% pay increase for public school teachers which will take effect in 2018. Additionally, he voted to establish the Online Virginia Network to make it easier, more convenient, and more affordable for non-traditional college students to complete degrees at George Mason University or Old Dominion University.

As a lifelong gun owner and hunter, Bobby cherishes our Second Amendment rights. He supports the rights of gun owners to have concealed carry permits and when Attorney General Mark Herring sought to restrict those rights, Bobby fought with his Republican colleagues to pass measures to ensure Virginians can still protect themselves. Bobby also understands the importance of and promotes the safe handling of firearms, and as a certified Virginia Department of Farm and Inland Fisheries hunting safety instructor, he seeks to educate others about gun safety.

Bobby has supported voluntary prayers in schools, ensuring prayer at public meetings and posting the motto “In God We Trust” in public buildings. Bobby is 100% pro-life, and believes in protecting the unborn by supporting parental notification for minors who seek abortions, opposing state funding of abortions and partial-birth abortions, and in 2017 was co-patron of a bill that would have halted the abortion of babies so developed that they can feel pain.