Cuellar: Starr and Zapata counties to receive close to half a billion dollars for transportation projects

RIO GRANDE CITY, TEXAS – Between them, the counties of Starr and Zapata will receive close to half a billion dollars for transportation infrastructure projects over the next ten years, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar has announced.

The federal funding will go towards the Texas Department of Transportation’s 2025 Unified Transportation Program, which is the state’s ten-year plan to guide the development of transportation work across the state.

“These funds will go towards constructing traffic relief routes, sidewalks, and improving existing roads, bridges, traffic control devices and safety features,” Cuellar said. “I will continue to fight for the funding we need to improve our infrastructure.”

Cuellar spoke about the funding at a press conference held at the Starr County Annex Building in Rio Grande City. Among the VIPs present were Starr County Judge Eloy Vera, Roma Mayor Jaime Escobar, Jr., and Starr County Industrial Foundation President Rose Benavidez. Daniel Flores, TxDOT’s area engineer, gave a breakdown on the projects his district will be working on.

Cuellar said $232.3 million in federal funding will go towards transportation infrastructure in Starr County, while $220.4 million in federal funding will go towards transportation infrastructure in Zapata County.

Congressman Cuellar kicked off his remarks by having a swipe at politicians from outside the Rio Grande Valley who paint the region in a bad light.

“I get a little frustrated with people that come to the border and take photo ops, and then they go back, and they blast away about how dangerous the border is after they have taken their photo ops,” Cuellar said.

Cuellar said he has been collating FBI numbers for the past ten years. He said they show the Texas-Mexico border region to be among the safest in the nation.

“Border communities, year after year after year, have been the safest part of the United States,” he said. “As an example, the murder rate at the national level is about 5.7 murders for 100,000. Every border community is lower than the national rate. And it’s not just the murder rate but it’s also violent crime.”

Cuellar congratulated the cities in Starr County and the county sheriff’s office for keeping the different communities safe.

Cuellar said but for presidential politics he would have secured more money for local law enforcement through Operation Stonegarden. The grants awarded under this program are used to enhance cooperation been U.S. Customs and Border Protection and local law enforcement agencies along the border.

“I thought I was going to get a big bump for our border communities, but somebody was running for president and wanted to win Florida,” Cuellar said, referring to then-President Trump.

“That was about four years ago, and that money went to Florida. I said, ‘what does this have to do with the border?’ But it became presidential.”

Nonetheless, Cuellar said about $2.8 million will be coming in under Operation Stonegarden. “We’ll make that official announcement when the sheriff is back,” Cuellar said.

Moving on to the subject at hand, Cuellar said more than $200 million in transportation funding was coming to Starr County over the next ten years.

“As you know, some couple years ago, we passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which was the largest amount of federal funding that the state of Texas has (ever seen),” Cuellar said, before having a dig at some of his colleagues in Washington.

“As you know, there are folks that vote no (on legislation like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill) and then once the money gets to Austin, they’ll be the first ones out there (bragging about it).”

Cuellar said the border region always has two battles to fight to secure funding.

“One battle is to get the money to the state of Texas, and the other battle, with all due respect, and, as you know, I used to be a state legislator… another battle is to get those dollars (from Austin) to areas like the border.”

Cuellar continued: “In my opinion, we should have got a larger amount of money, to be honest with you, especially when certain folks vote no. But there will be the persons out there trying to get those monies and then (try to take that money) somewhere else. But nevertheless, we got a huge amount of dollars that will be coming to the Pharr district.”

Cuellar said he wanted to thank the Texas Department of Transportation, and particularly Texas Transportation Commissioner Alex Meade, whom he described as a good friend.

“A lot of the projects that are on hold are going to be moving now,” Cuellar predicted. “And just in the counties of Zapata and Starr, we’re talking about almost a half a billion dollars that will be coming in. Think about that, just those two counties, almost half a billion dollars over the next ten years.”

Cuellar repeated that the federal funds go to Austin, “but then we have to fight to get those dollars over here.”

Cuellar said that under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, about $30 billion will go to the Texas Department transportation. He said there will also be “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars for water, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars for broadband also.”

Cuellar added: “The amount of monies coming in (for transportation infrastructure) over the next ten years is a little over $294 million. Of this, more than $230 million is federal dollars. The split is usually 80/20.  Eighty percent of those dollars are coming from Washington, DC.”

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