Peter Schorsch
U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor is ringing in the new year by celebrating what her office describes as successful work to deliver “record-setting” funding to the Tampa Bay region.
Collectively, Castor and her staff worked to deliver more than $10 million in aid, benefits and refunds to veterans, seniors, small businesses and families in 2022, including more than $4.8 million for veterans and service members.
“My Tampa constituent services team works tirelessly to cut through red tape on behalf of the families, veterans and businesses. We tragically lost the heart of Team Castor, Tery Sanchez, earlier this year, but have continued to meet the needs of our neighbors in her honor and have delivered historic returns,” Castor said.
“I am grateful for all that Tery, along with Steven Angotti, Tania Fernandez, Damaris Gonzalez and Sean Saintil — as well as the help of the entire Castor Team — did this year. Their expertise and compassion are critical to ensuring that veterans receive the benefits they have earned and to guarantee that survival stimulus payments, Social Security, Medicare are delivered on time.”
The team also secured more than $2.3 billion in federal grants to create jobs, lower costs, invest in schools and infrastructure, provide recovery aid for COVID-19 and support local partners.
“Amazingly, 812 federal grants bolstered neighborhoods from North Tampa to USF to West Tampa and more — for a total of $2,312,900,550 including important investments in housing, Tampa’s Riverwalk, safer streets and medical research,” Castor added.
“I love my hometown and am committed to lifting every neighbor through growing public transit, Feeding Tampa Bay through expanded food assistance, and other local organizations that are investing in skills career training to expand good-paying jobs and apprenticeships and so much more.”
Other wins include more than $132 million in federal grants from the Bipartisan Infrastructure law Castor championed.
Castor also helped secure $1 million from the Department of Health and Human Services for USF to help recruit and train nursing students and current registered nurses to increase access to care, she said. That aid also came with an emphasis on “chronic disease prevention and control, including mental health and substance use conditions.”
The Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority also received a $300,000 grant through the American Rescue Plan Act to help them restore service and keep essential services running following the pandemic.
Another $800,000 grant went to Bay Area Legal Services to help struggling individuals and families “with free and low-cost legal services as they recovered from natural disasters,” Castor said.
“The Tampa community is blessed with volunteers and organizations who are working to creatively and compassionately solve problems, and I was proud to partner with them to get these initiatives over the finish line,” she added.
Castor also touted 16 additional federal grants totaling $132,304 from the Infrastructure Investment and Job Act to “fix our roads and expand safe pathways for pedestrians and cyclists.”
“We are building safer communities, and creating jobs along the way. Port Tampa Bay also received a critical $12.6M grant that will create good-paying jobs and build a new dock so that larger cargo ships can utilize the Port. We’ll see lower costs through this construction and cement Port Tampa Bay’s place as a thoroughfare that’s critical to our state and nation’s economy,” Castor said.
Castor said she’s now looking ahead to 2023 to “deliver more investments that are critical to our economy and our neighbors’ well-being.“
“The Tampa Bay area is a special community, and I will stand up for my neighbors to bring every federal dollar home,” she added. “I am grateful for the work of my team and the partnership of local leaders, businesses and nonprofits that allows our community to secure grants that will keep Tampa Bay an outstanding place to live.”
