Representative Donald Wong maintains impressive voting record in first half of 2025-2026 session

Casts votes on 112 of 116 roll calls taken up by the House in 2025

BOSTON – State Representative Donald H. Wong (R-Saugus) maintained a near-perfect voting record in 2025, participating in all but four of the 116 roll call votes recorded in the House of Representatives between February 6, 2025, and November 19, 2025.

Representative Wong compiled a 97% attendance record last year by casting votes on several major policy initiatives during the first half of the 2025-2026 legislative session, including legislation that would require human trafficking awareness training for hospitality workers, provide $234 million in one-time financial support for fiscally strained hospitals and community health centers, and implement a formal licensing process for home care agencies operating in Massachusetts to help protect vulnerable clients receiving services.

Representative Wong also supported a proposal filed during the Fiscal Year 2026 House budget debate to repeal the 2023 no cost calls law, which provides unlimited phone calls for inmates at county and state correctional facilities, and redirect the $10 million in funding set aside for this program in the House budget to support unrestricted local aid for cities and towns. The amendment, which was rejected on a roll call vote of 26-128, also would have established a commission to study the fiscal challenges posed by this program and its impact on prisoner participation in state funded re-entry programs.

One of the first votes taken by Representative Wong this session was in support of a supplemental budget amendment requiring all funding expended for providing services through the state’s emergency housing assistance program to be subject to a competitive bidding process. The House Republican Caucus previously secured language in a 2024 supplemental budget imposing a competitive bidding requirement for all food contracts related to the emergency shelter system, following reports of a no-bid contract that cost the state close to $10 million. The new requirement will extend competitive bidding protections to all aspects of the emergency shelter system receiving state funding to help eliminate wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars.

Representative Wong also supported an amendment filed during the Fiscal Year 2026 House budget debate that would have placed further restrictions on the state’s right to shelter law by limiting participation in the Commonwealth’s emergency housing assistance program to U.S. citizens who have resided in Massachusetts for at least six months. This change would have helped to restore the original intent of the law by ensuring that Massachusetts residents in need have access to emergency shelter, but the amendment was rejected on a vote of 27-129.

In addition, Representative Wong backed two other Republican-sponsored amendments to the Fiscal Year 2026 House budget to address municipal concerns about the MBTA Communities Act, which requires cities and towns that fall within the MBTA’s service area to approve zoning for multifamily housing near local transit stops. One amendment, which was rejected on a vote of 27-128, would have explicitly prohibited any city or town’s eligibility for public safety related grant funding from being contingent upon that municipality’s compliance with the MBTA Communities Act.

The other amendment, which was rejected on a vote of 30-126, would have prohibited the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities and the Attorney General’s Office from enforcing any regulation, directive, or requirement under the MBTA Communities Act prior to December 31, 2026. This would have given communities a temporary reprieve from the harsh penalties being imposed on non-compliant communities, including the loss of vital state grant funding to support critical local projects.

Representative Wong cast additional votes this year on legislation to:

• address workplace violence within the health care industry and protect employees who suffer bodily injuries on the job;
• implement child welfare protections to improve communication and coordination among state agencies working with the families of children in foster care or receiving state services;
• remove outdated and offensive language used to describe individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities from the General Laws;
• implement enhanced penalties to protect public transit workers from assaults on the job, including establishing a new crime of assault and battery by means of a bodily substance, such as saliva and urine;
• restructure the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, which was described as a “rudderless agency without a clear indication of who is responsible for running its day-to-day operations” in a 2024 report issued by Inspector General Jeffrey S. Shapiro;
• offer enhanced retirement benefits to certain qualifying teachers hired before July 1, 2001 through the RetirementPlus program; and
• provide $3.28 billion to help address deferred infrastructure maintenance and other modernization projects at Massachusetts’s 29 public college and university campuses as part of the higher education BRIGHT Act (An Act to build resilient infrastructure to generate higher-ed transformation).

Representative Wong represents the 9^th Essex District, which includes Ward 1, Precincts 1 and 2 in Lynn; Precincts 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 in Saugus; and Precincts 1, 2, 3, and 7 in Wakefield. He currently serves as the Ranking Minority Member of the House and Joint Committees on Rules; the Joint Committee on Racial Equity, Civil Rights, and Inclusion; and the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development; and is also a member of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development.