Today, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16) voted in favor of the first government funding package of 2026 which includes three of the twelve mandatory spending bills; Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water; Interior; and Energy and Water.
In negotiations with Republicans, the Appropriations Committee had three goals: protect Democratic funding levels, drop Republican poison pill riders, and strengthen guardrails on the Trump administration. This package accomplishes those goals.
Democrats successfully stripped almost 150 Republican-led amendments, blocking efforts to weaken gun safety regulations, expand oil and gas leasing on public lands, curtail investments in renewable energy, and impose cruel culture-war constraints on LGBTQ+ Americans’ freedom to live their lives as their authentic selves.
“Today, I voted for three appropriations bills that invest in the critical government programs and services that support El Pasoans, put long overdue safeguards in place against the misuse of funds by the Trump Administration, and avoids catastrophic poison pills initially included by my Republican colleagues,” Congresswoman Escobar said. “I’m proud to have secured five of my Community Project Funding requests. This package invests millions in El Paso for important projects like cancer research at Texas Tech El Paso, Anthony Police Department’s new mobile command post, updates to aging water infrastructure in El Paso County, and more.”
Today’s bills include five of the Congresswoman’s 15 Community Project Funding requests.
They are:
- $1,092,000 for the El Paso County East Montana Water Tower Project to design and construct the East Montana Water Tower, a 750,000-gallon elevated storage facility to supplement an existing and aging 75,000-gallon water tower. With a planned lifespan of roughly 50 years, this water tower will serve more than 1,000 homes and businesses in this unincorporated part of the County.
- $1,031,000 to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso to acquire medical linear accelerators (LINAC) for the research enterprise of TTUHSC El Paso. LINAC systems are devices used to treat large tumors as an external beam radiation therapy treatment. These systems will be used to research the biological and therapeutic effects of varying doses of radiation on the body.
- $1,031,000 to the Rio Grande Council of Governments to replace or upgrade mobile and portable radios for public safety entities within El Paso County. This will drastically improve interoperable communications by providing reliable, timely communications among public safety responders and between public safety agencies and citizens, to effectively carry out public safety missions, as well as save lives.
- $1,031,000 to the Town of Anthony to acquire a mobile command center for the Anthony Police Department with the technology necessary to support the Town of Anthony Police Department’s mission to set up a central, mobile emergency management hub.
- $1,031,000 to El Paso Makes to initiate a manufacturing research project with El Paso small and medium manufacturers to develop manufacturing models enabled by digital engineering and automation capabilities to support United States goals to produce All Domain Attritable Autonomous Systems (ADA2) to counter China’s military.
The package includes additional investments including:
- $4 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education, and Bureau of Trust Fund Administration.
- $2.8 billion for Clean Water and Drinking Water State funds, which includes $1.6 billion for drinking water, wastewater, and storm water management projects.
- Increases home energy efficiency by providing $329 million for the Weatherization Assistance Program
- A total of $8.8 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency.
- $375 million for electric grid infrastructure to target a primary driver of rising electricity prices and combat the Republican cost of living crisis.
- $25 million for renewable energy projects.
- $6 million for the Southwest Border Regional Commission, the regional economic development agency, which invests in transportation infrastructure, basic public infrastructure, telecommunications, workforce training, business development and entrepreneurship, resource conservation and tourism, healthcare and related public services, and energy initiatives in our region.
- $4.4 billion for State and Tribal Assistance Grants.
A detailed summary of the bills can be found
here. A fact sheet can be found
here. More information about Congresswoman Escobar’s FY2026 Community Project Funding requests can be found
here.
