Rep. Kathy Castor
Representative for Florida’s 14th District
pronounced KATH-ee // KASS-ter
Castor is the representative for Florida’s 14th congressional district (view map) and is a Democrat. She has served since Jan 3, 2013. Castor is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025. She is 57 years old.
She was previously the representative for Florida’s 11th congressional district as a Democrat from 2007 to 2012.
![Photo of Rep. Kathy Castor [D-FL14]](/static/legislator-photos/412195-200px.jpeg)
Earmarks
Castor proposed $41 million in earmarks for fiscal year 2024, including:
- $6 million to Port Tampa Bay for “Southbay Expansion”
- $5 million to City of St. Petersburg for “St. Petersburg Storm Drainage Improvement”
- $4 million to Housing Authority of the City of Tampa for “Robles Park Smart HUB”
View all requests and justifications on Castor’s website »
View analysis and download spreadsheet from Demand Progress Education Fund »
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 Castor.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Castor 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 Castor has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Sep 28, 2023. See full analysis methodology.
Committee Membership
Kathy Castor sits on the following committees:
Enacted Legislation
Castor was the primary sponsor of 3 bills that were enacted:
- H.R. 1226 (116th): ACE Kids Act of 2019
- H.R. 6780 (115th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 7521 Paula Drive in Tampa, Florida, as the “Major Andreas O’Keeffe Post Office Building”.
- H.R. 3276 (112th): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 2810 East Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa, Florida, as the “Reverend Abe Brown Post Office Building”.
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
Castor sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Health (38%) Energy (20%) Commerce (14%) Government Operations and Politics (11%) Sports and Recreation (6%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Castor recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.R. 5075: Ethics in Energy Act of 2023
- H.R. 4324: 21st Century FTC Act
- H.R. 3807: Medical Device Shortage Reduction Act of 2023
- H.R. 3761: ASSIST Act
- H.R. 3633: PREVENT HPV Cancers Act of 2023
- H.R. 3218: Air Traffic Control Tower Replacement Process Report Act of 2023
- H.R. 2801: Kids PRIVACY Act
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2007 to Sep 2023, Castor missed 378 of 11,339 roll call votes, which is 3.3%. This is worse than the median of 1.7% 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.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
