December 23, 2022

Congressman Castro Touts Major Investments for San Antonio in 2023 Federal Appropriations Legislation

WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass fiscal year 2023 federal funding legislation with more than $15.6 million that Congressman Joaquin Castro secured for community projects in San Antonio. The bill also includes billions of dollars to fund health care, nutrition, workforce development, and other programs that benefit working people and seniors in San Antonio and across the nation. The legislation passed the U.S. Senate on December 23, 2022 and will likely be signed into law in the coming days.

“Since the beginning of the 2023 appropriations process, I’ve fought to make sure the federal government’s spending priorities reflect the needs of people in San Antonio. I’m pleased that the final federal funding package includes more than $15 million I got for community projects in San Antonio, in addition to nationwide investments in health care, job creation, and other important areas of progress. This bill will improve lives in San Antonio and across the country, and I look forward to seeing President Biden sign it into law,” said Congressman Castro.

Congressman Castro secured funding for the following community projects in San Antonio:


Housing

Our Casas Resident Council, Inc.
The High Impact Housing Project (HIPP)
This funding will support efforts to repair the homes of low-income homeowners on the Westside of San Antonio. The rehabilitated homes will be renovated to meet building codes and address safety issues among other concerns to provide better living conditions for the homeowners.
Funding: $1,057,257

City of San Antonio Westside Development Corporation / Prosper West
Casa Bella Project
This funding will support a proposal to acquire Westside homes that are chronically vacant, abandoned, or otherwise in a dilapidated condition, and rehabilitate them to modern standards of construction quality and sustainability while also improving their aesthetic contribution to the neighborhood. After a home has been rehabilitated, Casa Bella will sell it to a household that earns 80% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI), thus presenting an opportunity for homeownership that would normally be out of reach for many on the Westside.
Funding: $1,000,000

Health Care & Community Well-Being

El Centro del Barrio / CentroMed
FQHC Renovation: CentroMed South Park Medical Clinic
This funding will support renovation costs for the CentroMed South Park Medical Clinic, part of ongoing efforts to increase and enhance access to comprehensive, culturally competent, quality primary care services and improve health-related outcomes for underserved, vulnerable populations.
Funding: $1,000,000

University of Texas San Antonio
Evaluation and Research Coordinating Center (ERCC) for the Multi-assistance Center (MAC) at Morgan’s Wonderland
This funding will help seed the ERCC, an evaluation and research center led by the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), at the MAC at Morgan’s Wonderland. The ERCC will collaboratively establish a comprehensive research program to provide timely data and improve patient outcomes for people living with disabilities and their caregivers in the San Antonio area.
Funding: $492,370

Guardian House
Guardian House – Triple P Positive Parenting Program Expansion
This funding will support the Triple P Positive Parenting Program, an evidence-based, scalable, and adaptable parenting and family support system. Currently, this program is provided at no cost to the San Antonio community by the City of San Antonio Metro Health and its community partners as part of Metro Health’s ongoing goal of preventing child abuse and breaking generational cycles of family violence.
Funding: $483,963

CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Health Care Corporation Center for Miracles
Support Center for Miracles capacity to care for victims of child abuse and neglect.
This funding will support the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio’s Center for Miracles in their work to provide training and education to members of the South Texas community on identifying and handling possible child abuse cases. This funding will help train future counselors, social workers, medical staff and first responders to identify, assess, diagnose, and treat child abuse and neglect.
Funding: $472,699

Texas A&M University San Antonio
The Autism Mobile Assessment Bus and Learning Environment (AMABLE)
This funding will support AMABLE, a mobile unit serving Edgewood ISD and other partner schools in South San Antonio. The mobile unit will assess and develop recommendations for school-based autism services and educational supports; provide training for teachers and parents; and raise awareness of autism-related issues. The AMABLE motorcoach will be a mobile assessment clinic that provides autism assessment services, parent training, community support services, and Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) training to the community.
Funding: $300,000

Education and Research

St. Mary’s University
Construction and Equipment for the Innovation Center at St. Mary's University.
This funding will support the construction of a new Innovation Center and help St. Mary’s University equip seven laboratories related to advanced manufacturing including Robotics and Smart Manufacturing; Measurement and Instrumentation; Human Factors; Additive Manufacturing and Reverse Engineering; Data Science and Machine Learning; Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Supply Chain; and an Engineering Design Studio.
Funding: $5,561,000

University of Texas Health Science Center at SA
Center for Innovative Drug Discovery in Hepatic Steatosis (CIDD-HS)
This funding will support a project to provide laboratory equipment and instrumentation for the CIDD-HS to discover novel treatments for hepatic steatosis. By focusing on new treatments for hepatic steatosis, the CIDD-HS will also help prevent liver failure and liver cancer that arise from hepatic steatosis.
Funding: $1,000,000

University of Texas School of Public Health San Antonio
Renovation of the UT Health San Antonio and UTSA shared school for the University of Texas School of Public Health at San Antonio
This funding will support the renovation of an existing building for a new shared school between UT Health San Antonio and University of Texas San Antonio that will focus on expanding educational outreach and public health access to communities most in need.
Funding: $1,000,000

Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center
Guadalupe Latino Bookstore Education Outreach and Literacy Program
This funding will support the Guadalupe Latino Bookstore, a valuable new resource in the San Antonio community which provides space and new opportunities to offer expanded, expert-designed, culturally relevant, and locally situated bilingual programs to underscore literacy as a social practice and to support the educational advancement of local children and other Texas constituents.
Funding: $102,250

Centro Cultural Aztlan, Inc.
Chicano Arts Curriculum for K-12 Students
This funding will support Centro Cultural Aztlan’s work with artists, educators, historians, and cultural experts to develop a series of lesson plans with audio-visual resources and age-appropriate arts activities to engage K-12 students in learning about Chicano art, culture, and history.
Funding: $95,000

Small Business Support

LiftFund Inc.
SA West Small Business Support Program
This funding will provide LiftFund with capital and administrative support to make grants directly to small businesses to revitalize their business building infrastructure and for LiftFund to identify structures to be purchased for curating small business on the Westside of San Antonio.
Funding: $1,000,000

University of Texas at San Antonio
HUB Government Contracting Academy
This funding will support the HUB Government Contracting Academy, which offers business development, work history reviews and guidance, ongoing and consistent advising, and access to capital education and collaboration as solutions for HUBs to successfully win and complete government contracts.
Funding: $576,000

Transportation

San Antonio International Airport
Electric Shuttle Bus (eBus) Program at the Airport
This funding will allow for the purchase of three electronic passenger buses (eBus), associated chargers, and design and installation of chargers at the San Antonio International Airport’s Consolidated Rental Car Facility (CONRAC).
Funding: $1,500,000

The FY2022 Federal Appropriations Bill also includes billions of dollars in funding for nationwide initiatives that benefit San Antonio. Key funding and programs are highlighted below and a full summary of the bill can be found here.

Families and Communities

  • Provides $6 billion in funding for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program to support needy families and maintain expanded access to fresh fruits and vegetables for post-partum mothers and young children.
  • Extends Medicaid coverage for children who are most at risk of losing care.
  • Expands workplace protections for lactating mothers to cover salaried employees and provide recourse against employers who break the law. 

Public Safety and Violence Prevention 

  • Provides $20.5 million for the Domestic Violence Hotline, an increase of $5 million from 2022.
  • Provides $109 million for the Drug-Free Communities Program, an increase of $3 million from 2022.
  • Provides $95 million for grants to improve the national firearms background check system.
  • Provides $45 million to prevent and combat hate crimes.
  • Provides $115 million to prevent recidivism by re-integrating ex-offenders into the workforce. This funding represents an increase of $13 million from 2022.

Education and Workforce Development

  • Raises the maximum Pell Grant by $500 to $7,395.
  • Provides $228 million for Hispanic Serving Institutions, an increase of $45 million from 2022.
  • Provides $285 million to fund registered apprenticeships, an increase of $50 million from 2022.
  • Provides $65 million to continue and expand Strengthening Community College Training Grants to help meet local and regional labor market demand for a skilled workforce by training to workers in in-demand industries at community colleges and four-year partners. This funding represents an increase of $15 million from 2022. 

Housing

  • Expands housing choice vouchers to nearly 12,000 low-income individuals and families experiencing or at risk of homelessness nationwide, including survivors of domestic violence and veterans. This increase comes in addition to the 25,000 new vouchers provided in fiscal year 2022.

Military families and veterans

  • Provides a 4.6 percent pay increase for servicemembers in addition to an 11 percent increase in the Basic Allowance for Housing and an 11 percent increase in the Basic Allowance for Subsistence.
  • Provides $210 million to reduce food prices at commissaries.
  • Provides $687 million in funding for school construction on military bases — the highest level of funding ever.
  • Provides additional funding to help military families cope with rising inflation, including $12.1 million for a basic needs allowance as a supplement to eligible servicemembers with dependents, a $23.5 million increase in the dislocation allowance to help offset personal expenses for change of station moves, and $164.2 million for temporary lodging expenses to expand coverage during change of station moves from 10 to 14 days.
  • Provides $5 billion in new mandatory funds for the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund, which supports costs related to implementing the Honoring Our PACT Act.
  • Eliminates co-pays for the first three mental health appointments that a veteran attends each year.

Small Business

  • Provides $1.2 billion for the Small Business Administration to support investments in programs to help underserved entrepreneurs access capital and contracting opportunities, including:
    • $140 million for Small Business Development Centers
    • $41 million for Microloan Technical Assistance
    • $30 million for the Federal and State Technology Partnership Program, Growth Accelerators, and Regional Innovation Clusters
    • $27 million for Women’s Business Centers
  • Provides $324 million for Community Development Financial Institutions for financial and technical assistance grants and awards to help struggling businesses in underserved communities, an increase of $29 million from 2022.
  • Provides $70 million for the Minority Business Development Agency to support minority-owned businesses, an increase of $15 million from 2022. 

Immigration

  • Provides $1.9 billion in additional support for CBP and ICE to help manage the high volume of migrants arriving at the southern border, including:
    • $1.56 million to CBP for processing facilities, migrant medical care, transportation, and other costs; and
    • $339.7 million for ICE for processing capacity, migrant medical care, transportation; and other non-detention costs.
  • Provides $860 million for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the federal sub-agency that manages immigration courts, an increase of $100 million from 2022.
  • Provides $800 million for a shelter and services grant program for migrants.