Kathy Castor is Tampa Bay’s voice in the U.S. Congress. She was elected in 2006 and represents Florida’s 14th Congressional district, which includes Tampa and St. Petersburg with parts of Hillsborough County and Pinellas County. She is the first woman to represent Hillsborough and Pinellas counties in the U.S. Congress.
Castor focuses on issues vital to Tampa Bay area families and businesses, and is committed to building a stronger economy that works for everyone as a Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s powerful Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. Castor has been a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee since 2009. She is also the Chair of the former Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. She worked on initiatives to create jobs, protect the environment and consumers, improve schools, ensure veterans receive the benefits and care they have earned, provide access to affordable health care and defend protections for people with preexisting health conditions.
Providing better-paying jobs for Tampa Bay is Castor’s number 1 priority. She has successfully fought to bring new, good-paying job opportunities to Tampa Bay’s small businesses and large economic engines alike, including Port Tampa Bay, University of South Florida, Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa International Airport, MacDill Air Force Base and federally qualified community health centers.
In 2022 alone, Representative Castor secured a record setting $10 million in aid, benefits and refunds to veterans, seniors, small businesses and families in 2022, including over $4.8 million to veterans and service members; over $2.3 billion in federal grants to create jobs, lower costs, invest in our schools and infrastructure, help our community recover from the Covid19 pandemic, and support the important work of local partners; and an additional $132.3 million in federal grants from the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that Rep. Castor championed in Congress.
In 2021, her office worked to deliver $2.9 billion in Covid19 grants to support small businesses and nonprofits, including $2.7 billion in Paycheck Protection small business loans, $74.6 million in Restaurant Revitalization Fund awards and $46.8 million in Shuttered Venue Operators Grant; a record $1.9 billion in federal grants secured for this Tampa/Hillsborough congressional district to create jobs, invest in education and infrastructure, and support the important work of local partners as Tampa Bay Builds Back Better; a record $3.4 million recovered for veterans, seniors, small businesses and families of this congressional district who were stuck in red tape before requesting assistance from U.S. Rep. Castor; and thanks to the American Rescue Plan and President Biden, Rep. Castor delivered ~$206M in tax cuts for most families with children (per the new expanded Child Tax Credit) which helped 86,000 Tampa area families at a time they needed it most with child care, groceries, diapers and school supplies.