Press Releases
Congressional Pre-K Caucus Announces New Co-Chair, Congressman Rodney Davis
Washington, D.C.-Today, the Congressional Pre-K Caucus Co-Chairs Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20); Congresswoman Katherine M. Clark (MA-05); and Congressman Tom Cole (OK-04) announced that Congressman Rodney Davis (IL-13) will be the newest co-chair of the Congressional Pre-K Caucus. This bipartisan group of lawmakers seek to gain a deeper understanding of the benefits of early childhood education and promote policy recommendations and legislation in Congress to expand high-quality Pre-K … Continue Reading
September 04, 2019
Castro Statement on Military Construction Project Announcement from Defense and Impact on San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO--Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, today released the following statement in response to the announcement that the Administration will be moving forward with its allocation of military construction projects to fund the President's border wall. $18.5 million will be pulled from San Antonio directly, … Continue Reading
August 28, 2019
Castro Statement on Trump’s Promise to Finish Border Wall ‘By Election Day’ and ‘Take the Land’
SAN ANTONIO--Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, today released the following statement in response to President Trump's promise to finish the border fence ahead of the 2020 presidential election and fast-track billions of dollars' worth of construction contracts, seize private land and disregard environmental standards, … Continue Reading
August 22, 2019
Castro, Cole, Spanberger Introduce Bill to Include Early Child Education Jobs in Work-Study Programs
SAN ANTONIO-Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, Congressman Tom Cole (OK-4), and Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger (VA-7), Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Member of the House Agriculture Committee, introduced H.R. 4196 to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to make jobs in early childhood education … Continue Reading
August 20, 2019
Castro, Grijalva Call for Department of Labor to Resume Visa Certification Process for Abused Workers and Trafficking Victims
WASHINGTON-Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, and Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-3), Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, sent a letter calling for the Department of Labor to reverse a newly issued guidance that creates unnecessary hurdles for vulnerable immigrant workers: "By needlessly complicating … Continue Reading
August 13, 2019
Castro, Ruiz, King, and Bilirakis Introduce Jennifer Kepner HOPE Act to Provide Low-Cost Healthcare to Veterans Exposed to Burn Pits
WASHINGTON-Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, Congressman Raul Ruiz (CA-36), Congressman Peter King (NY-2), and Congressman Gus Bilirakis (FL-12) today introduced H.R. 4137, the Jennifer Kepner Healthcare for Open-Air Burn-Pit Exposure (HOPE) Act, to help veterans exposed to burn pits receive access to quality, … Continue Reading
August 09, 2019
Castro Spokesperson Statement on House GOP Letter Calling for Ethics Inquiry
WASHINGTON-The Office of Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, today released the following statement after seven House Republicans called for an ethics inquiry into a tweet from the Congressman, which included publicly available donor information: "The request to the House Ethics Committee is baseless and these Members … Continue Reading
August 02, 2019
Castro Confronts Pompeo on Nuclear Arms Control
WASHINGTON-Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, today sent a letter to Secretary Pompeo on the date of the United States' formal withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty to express concern about the future of U.S.-Russian arms control and to urge the expeditious extension of the New START … Continue Reading
July 30, 2019
Castro Releases Podcast Episode on the State of Play for Trade
WASHINGTON-Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, today released a Diplomatic Cable episode with Wendy Cutler, Vice President and Managing Director at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Washington, D.C. office. As former Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, Cutler worked on a range of U.S. Trade negotiations in the … Continue Reading
July 26, 2019
Castro Introduces Resolution to Address the Exploitation of Child Labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo
WASHINGTON-Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, today introduced a resolution to combat the rampant exploitation of children and child labor in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo: "Cobalt is a valuable and strategic mineral of importance to the United States and American businesses. But companies have a … Continue Reading
July 24, 2019
Castro Questions Mueller During Highly Anticipated Testimony
- As Delivered - WASHINGTON-Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, today had the following exchange with Robert Mueller during the highly anticipated Intelligence Committee hearing, where members and the American people heard testimony to the former Special Counsel: CASTRO: Thank you, Chairman. Thank you Special Counsel … Continue Reading
July 18, 2019
Castro Introduces the HERE Act, Legislation Supporting Hispanic Students and Institutions for College and Beyond
WASHINGTON-Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, today introduced the HERE Act, legislation that would create a new grant program to support partnerships and collaboration between Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and school districts that educate the majority of Hispanic students, so that they can better prepare and … Continue Reading
July 17, 2019
Castro and Moore Co-Draft Letter to USCIS and ICE to Address Ongoing Mistreatment of Abused Immigrants
WASHINGTON-Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, and Congresswoman Gwen Moore (WI-04), a member of the Ways and Means Committee, co-drafted and sent a letter today to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to address the mismanagement of the U-visa program, which was … Continue Reading
July 16, 2019
Castro Introduces the CHANGE Act, Legislation Correcting Alienating Names in Government
WASHINGTON-Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, today introduced the CHANGE Act, legislation that eliminates the term "alien" and "illegal alien" from the Immigration and Nationality Act, and replaces them with "foreign national" and "undocumented foreign national," respectively: "Words matter. It's vital that we respect … Continue Reading
June 28, 2019
Castro, Wyden, Van Hollen, Sanders Reintroduce Measure to Restore Oversight of Federal Facilities
WASHINGTON-Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., this week were joined by Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to reintroduce legislation to allow members of Congress immediate access to federal facilities, including those under contract or lease, and to give members of Congress an avenue to report their findings. This legislation follows reports detailing horrific conditions for migrant children and families in government care. "Trump and his … Continue Reading
June 27, 2019
Castro, Doggett to Host Town Hall to Address Domestic Violence
WASHINGTON-Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, and Congressman Lloyd Doggett (TX-35), Chairman of the Health Subcommittee on the House Ways and Means Committee and senior member of the House Budget Committee, will host a town hall next Tuesday, July 2nd to address the pervasive problem of domestic violence in San Antonio … Continue Reading
June 25, 2019
Castro Releases Podcast Episode on the Upcoming G20 Summit, Authoritarianism and Responsible Competition
WASHINGTON-Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, today released a Diplomatic Cable episode with Thomas Wright, Director of the Center on the United States and Europe and a Senior Fellow in the Project on International Order at Brookings Institution. A thought leader on U.S. foreign policy, grand strategy, and President … Continue Reading
June 18, 2019
Castro Statement on Decision to Cut Aid to Northern Triangle
WASHINGTON-Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, released the following statement today in response to the State Department's announcement yesterday that they will move forward with the President's reckless order to cut off a significant portion of our aid to the Northern Triangle: "A presidential tantrum-once again-is … Continue Reading
June 05, 2019
Castro Announces $243K NSF Grant to UTSA for Development of Cloud Platform Microservices
SAN ANTONIO-Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, today announced that the National Science Foundation (NSF) intends to award $243,940.00 to the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) for a project that will develop novel performance models and resource management solutions to enable cloud platforms to increase its … Continue Reading
June 05, 2019
Castro Statement on the 75th Anniversary of D-Day
WASHINGTON-Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the House Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, released the following statement today to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of D-Day: "Today, we recognize the fateful day 75 years ago when American troops stormed the beaches of Normandy to fight for the just cause of freedom. The best way to truly honor those who … Continue Reading