Gonzales: UTRGV was not successful in its bid for an $80 million Recompete Grant

EDINBURG, Texas – Veronica Gonzales, senior vice president of governmental and community relations for UT-Rio Grande Valley, has spoken about “the one that got away.”

Gonzales said her university and other stakeholders, including all four counties in the Valley, had high hopes of landing a “Recompete Grant” from the U.S. Department of Commerce. It could have been worth as much as $80 million.

But, the Valley lost out, Gonzales told the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service. 

“We were very disappointed because we felt like we were really solid (with our grant application). We really did have a lot of support from the entire Valley, the four counties, the institutions of higher education, the cities, nonprofits. Everybody supported this,” Gonzales said.

Under the Recompete Pilot Program, the US Department of Commerce is looking to invest $200 million toward projects that spur economic activity in geographically diverse and persistently distressed communities across the country. 

Specifically, the program targets areas where prime-age (25-54 years) employment significantly trails the national average. 

“The program aims to close this gap through by utilizing Economic Development Administration’s place-based approach and delivering large, highly flexible grants based on community-driven strategies to address unique workforce and economic development needs of individual communities or regions,” according to a Department of Commerce press release.

“The Recompete Program will invest in economically distressed communities to create and connect people to good jobs. This program will create renewed economic opportunity in communities that have for too long been forgotten. To do so, the program targets areas where prime-age (25-54 years) employment significantly trails the national average, with the goal to close this gap through large, flexible investments.”

Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez is also disappointed UTRGV’s bid for the Recompete Grant was unsuccessful. Cortez believed the grant could help the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force in its ongoing efforts to reduce poverty.

“Unfortunately, there are only a few grants given throughout the United States. I believe that the El Paso area was the one that was awarded the grant here in the state of Texas. However, there’s more to come and there’s more work to do. We’re never going to stop working for us to finance an activity that is very essential to our area,” Cortez told the Guardian.

Gonzales said Ron Garza, associate vice president for workforce and economic development at UTRGV, was planning on going to Washington, D.C., to find out why the consortium UTRGV put together lost out. Garza was UTRGV’s point person for the grant application.

“Ron wants to get more information on where, maybe, we were lacking,” Gonzales said. “We haven’t gotten back the feedback just yet to see where we may have been lacking.”

The Guardian reminded Gonzales just how excited Garza and Judge Cortez were last fall about securing the Recompete Grant. 

Gonzales agreed that there was a lot of excitement from all the stakeholders involved in putting the Valley’s bid together.

Gonzales noted that El Paso was successful in its application to secure Recompete funding.

“I know El Paso was successful (in securing a ReCompete Grant). Maybe because El Paso has a smaller amount of territory than the Valley. Maybe (the Department of Commerce) felt they could have more of an impact in El Paso. We’re a very large area with a lot of different partners that would have had to come into play,” Gonzales said.

“Maybe that’s something that was something the federal government took into account in trying to determine where they can have the most impact. Maybe they felt they could do so in a more compact region. Our region is so large, but I do think that if we all come together and support the effort that we can continue, and at least we’ve done the groundwork for the next one we go after.”

Gonzales said there is a silver lining.

“The good news is that a lot of the efforts we made in trying to apply for that grant, we can continue to use those to further the purpose, which is to determine who is out of work, who needs the services, how can we give them the skills that they need to get into the workforce,” Gonzales said.

“So, a lot of the homework was done. We just don’t have the funding, but I think there’s a lot of support and hopefully we can even get some local funding that will help us to move that effort forward.”

Gonzales referenced UTRGV’s Recompete Grant application when she spoke at a conference hosted by Western Governors University in October, 2023. The title of the conference was: Accelerator 2023 RGV Health Equity Conference.” It was held at Mission Event Center. 

Referencing the Recompete Grant, Gonzales told the conference: “I’m also very proud that we all got together, many, many in the community, to partner on what we’re calling the Recompete Grant. It’s a federal grant that could even bring us as much as over $80 million.”

Gonzales pointed out that UTRGV had taken the lead on the Recompete Grant.

“Texas A&M is our partner on this, along with South Texas College, TSTC and TSC, plus the four counties (Hidalgo, Cameron Starr, and Willacy).”

Gonzales then explained what the Recompete Grant is all about.

“What we’re trying to do with that grant is to identify the jobs that are already out there and make sure we give people the credentials they need to get in those jobs. Also, to identify the jobs that we need to get our EDCs and others involved in, so that we create those jobs and then bring the types of industry here that are going to place our students in (those Jobs) so that we don’t lose the best and the brightest in the area, what we call the brain drain. And that we make sure that people are able to take care of their families and take care of them with good paying jobs.”

In an interview with the Guardian last October, Thomas Ray Garcia, one of the lead coordinators for the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force,, said the Recompete Grant would have been been so beneficial for the Valley.

“The idea is to get residents out of poverty through a systemic process of getting them educated, getting them trained, getting them counseled and mentored, and then getting them gainful employment,” Garcia said. 

“That also means working at the back end and trying to systemically ensure that the jobs are there. So what we’ve tried to do at the Prosperity Task Force is both match job seekers to jobs, plus get new jobs here in Hidalgo County.”

Garcia added: “That’s a big part of what this Recompete grant would help us do. We are still in the process of putting together the framework of doing the things that we set out to do in the ReCompete grant, even in the case we don’t get it. But, the ReCompete grant would make reality a lot of what we’re aiming to do by eradicating poverty in Hidalgo County, and by working collaboratively across all of our different sectors, and in this case, a regional effort. What helps Hidalgo County we hope will also help Starr County, Cameron County, Willacy County to make sure we’re not competing, but we are indeed one region, one voice.”

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