Blog
The Biden Years
El Paso, TX,
January 17, 2025
It’s the last full week of the Biden-Harris administration. As I reflect on the progress our country made over the last four years under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, I want to remind you about some of those wins and how they’ve set up our country and community for success for years to come. Let’s not forget where we were in 2020: a global pandemic that crashed global economies. The official unemployment rate was almost 15%, with some experts arguing the real rate was closer to 20%. Food banks across the country were distributing millions of pounds of food to hungry Americans every week. COVID cases and deaths were running rampant. We needed a bold, comprehensive, and forward-looking plan, and President Biden delivered for our country and our community with the American Rescue Plan. Broadly speaking, the ARP got shots in arms, kept businesses open, helped fund local law enforcement, recovered and created new jobs, and more. It’s the reason why the United States had the strongest recovery in the world from the pandemic. In El Paso, I fought and secured over $150 million for recovery efforts to include testing and vaccinations, SBA loans that kept businesses open and El Pasoans employed, ensured families faced economic hardships with extra income, and more. Thankfully, Congressional Democrats delivered the votes needed for all of these investments; not a single Republican in the House or the Senate voted for the American Rescue Plan. The Biden-Harris administration also had many other impacts on El Paso. He signed into law my bill to designate the El Paso County Healing Garden into a national memorial. After years of advocacy, President Biden designated Castner Range as a national monument. He also signed into law legislation that created the new El Paso VA Health Care Center. I’m proud of our work with the White House on this $700 million facility, which will improve access and quality care for our over 50,000 veterans in our community. He signed into law the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which has provided millions of federal funds for projects in El Paso. This includes:
There’s so many other projects that have been funded through this law. President Biden has also signed into law many of the Community Project Funding requests my office has submitted, totaling over $70 million for projects such as a County animal shelter, new fire stations, water infrastructure, which helps connect families in outlying areas to water and wastewater, a pediatric mobile clinic for El Paso Children’s Hospital, investment in cancer research and care at Texas Tech, a senior meal and community kitchen, and much, much more. Additionally, members of the Biden-Harris administration have come to El Paso, and have been helpful to our community. I’ve been proud to host the following leaders over the last four years, whose support of our community has been instrumental:
I also cannot forget about El Paso's very own Gabe Camarillo, Under Secretary of the Army and Dr. Maria-Elena Giner, Commissioner for the International Boundary and Water Commission as well. I am so proud to have ensured El Paso was top of mind for this administration – including by ensuring almost 650,000 veterans in the state of Texas get the benefits they deserve through the PACT Act and almost 12,000 El Pasoans have their insulin capped at $35 a month – and I hope to be able to continue that work for our community for the next four years. |