Economic Development/Small Business
Left: Construction engineers evaluate plans to restore the historic Knights of Pythias building in Cuero, Texas, soon to become the new home to the Cuero Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum. Congressman Hinojosa helped secure federal funds for the project.
Congressman Hinojosa is dedicated to increasing and expanding businesses in his district and in finding new markets for South Texas products, not only in the United States, but also overseas. Working with the Department of Commerce, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies, Congressman Hinojosa is helping to strengthen the economy in the 15th Congressional district.
To promote regional economic development, Congressman Hinojosa encouraged the communities of Elsa, Edcouch, La Villa, and Monte Alto to create the Delta Region Revitalization Project. To jumpstart the project, he obtained a $150,000 Planning EDA Grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce to create a long-term regional strategic plan. With a subsequent EDA grant of $3.5 million for the project, the new Delta Mercado farmer was completed and is open for business. Similar economic development projects are being developed in Bee, Refugio and Kleberg County.
In the 112th Congress, Congressman Hinojosa introduced H.R. 2216 to allow the North American Development Bank to expand the scope of projects eligible for funding. Currently the bank can only fund environmental projects. H.R. 2216 would allow the bank to also fund economic development and infrastructure projects along the U.S.-Mexico border.
As a member of the Congressional Manufacturing Caucus, Congressman Hinojosa has worked diligently to find ways to preserve and increase manufacturing jobs and exports from the 15th Congressional district and the United States to improve small businesses. Hinojosa is building partnerships with local support
organizations and cities to successfully grow exports from the Valley into not only Mexican markets, but also into Europe and Asia. Congressman Hinojosa believes that this type of regional coordination is what will make or break small communities throughout his district as they try to achieve the same degree of economic progress seen in the larger cities. To support small business, Hinojosa has defended the SBA’s 7(a) program and several other programs at the SBA to ensure that small businesses have a chance to compete
Above Right: Cong. Hinojosa at opening of new Mercedes EDC Office.
During his early years in Congress, he successfully won the recession of faulty flood maps by the Federal Emergency Management Administration. This was only the second time in history that FEMA rescinded maps it had issued. As a result, communities in the Rio Grande Valley were spared billions of dollars of economic loss and the region was able to continue its progress in becoming one of the fastest growing regions in the nation.
New infrastructure projects like Interstate 69 and the recently opened Anzalduas and Donna/Rio Bravo International Bridges are creating jobs and helping to attract new businesses to the community. His efforts to create a trained workforce and to support collaborations between the business community, colleges and universities, workforce training and state and federal agencies has helped develop projects like the Rapid Manufacturing Center. This Center provides new business with research and development and worker training so that they can more quickly get up and running and create jobs.
