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Rep. Joaquin Castro

Representative for Texas’s 20th District

pronounced wah-KEEN // KAST-roh

Castro is the representative for Texas’s 20th congressional district (view map) and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 3, 2013. Castro is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025. He is 49 years old.

Photo of Rep. Joaquin Castro [D-TX20]

Earmarks

Castro proposed $62 million in earmarks for fiscal year 2024, including:

  • $19 million to City of San Antonio for “San Antonio International Airport – Remain Overnight Aircraft Parking”
  • $16 million to Port Authority of San Antonio for “Port San Antonio Complete Streets Conversion”
  • $10 million to Texas Division of Emergency Management for “Concepcion Creek – Phase 1”

These are earmark requests which may or may not survive the legislative process to becoming law. Most representatives from both parties requested earmarks for fiscal year 2024. Across representatives who requested earmarks, the median total amount requested for this fiscal year was $39 million.

Earmarks are federal expenditures, tax benefits, or tariff benefits requested by a legislator for a specific entity. Rather than being distributed through a formula or competitive process administered by the executive branch, earmarks may direct spending where it is most needed for the legislator's district. All earmark requests in the House of Representatives are published online for the public to review. We don’t have earmark requests for senators. The fiscal year begins on October 1 of the prior calendar year. Source: Appropriations.house.gov. Background: Earmark Disclosure Rules in the House

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2022 Report Card for Castro.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Castro is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the House of Representatives positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Castro has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Sep 26, 2023. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Joaquin Castro sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Castro was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:

View All »

Does 3 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Castro sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

International Affairs (42%) Immigration (23%) Education (15%) Labor and Employment (6%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Castro recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

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Voting Record

Key Votes

Castro voted No

Passed 314/117 on May 31, 2023.
This bill would enact a compromise reached by House Republicans and President Biden to avert an impending fiscal crisis related to the statutory debt limit. …

Castro voted Yea

Castro voted Nay

Passed 327/85 on Dec 21, 2020.
This bill became the vehicle for passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, a major government funding bill, which also included economic stimulus provisions due …

Castro voted No

Passed 368/51 on May 25, 2017.
More than half of teens have sent sexually explicit images or “sexted” before age 18–54 percent to be exact, according to researchers at Drexel University. …

Castro voted Aye

Passed 237/178 on Mar 16, 2017.
H.R. 1259 would institute necessary reforms at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) by providing the Secretary with the authority to expeditiously remove, demote, or …

Castro voted Yea

Passed 250/171 on Feb 14, 2017.
H.R. 428 requires the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to survey the gradient boundary along the Red River in Oklahoma and Texas. Specifically, the bill: …

Castro voted Not Voting

Passed 338/88 on May 13, 2015.
The USA Freedom Act (H.R. 2048, Pub.L. 114–23) is a U.S. law enacted on June 2, 2015 that restored in modified form several provisions of …

Castro voted Nay

Passed 219/206 on Dec 11, 2014.
This bill became the vehicle for passage of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 [pdf], which was approved by the House on December …

Castro voted Aye

Missed Votes

From Jan 2013 to Sep 2023, Castro missed 253 of 6,146 roll call votes, which is 4.1%. This is much worse than the median of 1.8% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: