U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL) announced today a $1 million grant for the Tampa Bay Academy of Hope. The grant will fund the Academy’s NOW (No Offender Without a Second Chance) initiative that offers support services, training and skills development to help participants ages 16-24 obtain employment. Read more »

If Congress does not act by Monday, the rate on federally subsidized Stafford loans will double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent. Read more »

“Equal rights under the law for families is fundamental to our American values. Marriage is defined by commitment and love, and it is important that the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that all married couples must be treated equally. The decision will have a positive, meaningful impact for all Americans, and I am proud to have signed an amicus brief in support of overturning the Defense of Marriage Act." Read more »

Today, U.S. Rep. Castor (D-Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL) called on the House Republicans to support bills that promote jobs creation and the economy, not legislation that interferes with medical decisions by women and their doctors and their right to privacy. Read more »

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL) was at Tampa Bay Boulevard Elementary today and spoke out in opposition to Congressional Republicans' plan this week to cut supplemental nutrition for nearly 2 million people, mostly working families with children and senior citizens. Read more »

The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council recently released its initial draft plan for restoring the Gulf Coast and will hold a public meeting about it Monday, June 17, 5:30-9 p.m. The meeting will take place at the Fish & Wildlife Research Institute, located at 100 Eighth Ave., S.E. in St. Petersburg. In addition, formal comments will be accepted through June 24.  “The Gulf… Read more »

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL) today denounced a Republican anti-immigration vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to deport Dream Act students. The vote is a direct attack on the "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" initiative that protects hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the United States as children and have since led law-abiding lives. Read more »

U.S. Reps Kathy Castor (FL-14) and Dennis Ross (FL-15) introduced bipartisan legislation to prevent identity theft by uniformly truncating Social Security numbers on written documents. H.R. 2229, the Safeguarding Social Security Numbers Act of 2013 would mandate that Social Security numbers are truncated so that only a few, if any, of the nine digits of the Social Security number are visible. Read more »

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL) released the following statement today regarding the repeal of the discriminatory policy regarding gay pride passed by the Hillsborough County Commission in 2005. Read more »

In an effort to keep the pressure on the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to eliminate the massive backlog of veterans claims, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL) announced today her cosponsorship of a legislative package to immediately address the problem that has nearly 900,000 veterans waiting an average of nine months before they receive a decision from the VA. Read more »