As Senate President, Ruggerio serves as an ex officio member of all standing Senate committees.
Ruggerio served as Majority Whip from 2003 through 2010. He has previously served as a member and as Vice Chairman of the Senate Labor Committee, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Labor and Transportation, and as a member of the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Rules Committee, the Senate Labor Committee, and the Joint Committee on Accounts and Claims. He also previously served as Deputy Majority Leader.
Ruggerio is the “Dean” of the Rhode Island General Assembly, meaning he has served longer than any other member of the RI Senate or House of Representatives.
Prior to his tenure in the Senate, Ruggerio was a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 1981 through 1984 and was a member of the House Labor Committee and House Corporations Committee.
He served as a policy adviser for the Office of the Lieutenant Governor from 1977 through 1981.
In January 2013, Ruggerio was one of five senators to file legislation seeking a voter referendum to define marriage as being between solely a man and a woman in the Rhode Island Constitution.[1][2]
Ruggerio was briefly redistricted to Senate District 6 in 2002 before being redistricted back in 2004.[3]
Ruggerio resides in North Providence and is the father of two children, Charles and Amanda.
In November 1989, Ruggerio was charged with maliciously damaging the car of a Lincoln businessman, Nandy M. Sarda, in September of the same year. In February 1990, he was ordered to pay restitution and to stay away from Sarda.[4]