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Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect that Rep. Castro does not plan to run for Texas attorney general or for U.S. Senate.
Forty days after the federal government shutdown, there is a path for it to reopen after eight Democratic senators joined 52 Republican senators in ending the filibuster block on allowing debate on a funding package. San Antonio Congressman Joaquín Castro denounced the deal saying it falls short of delivering on reversing the hikes in health insurance premiums in the Affordable Care Act and other demands that Democrats have been seeking in the government funding stand-off.
“I disagree with the senators and the deal that they made,” Castro said on TPR’s "The Source." “I wish it wasn't just a guarantee of a vote to extend them (ACA Tax Credits).”
“I think the least that Congress could do was help hold a line on health insurance for people,” the San Antonio Democrat said.
Castro said if and when this bill comes to the House of Representatives, he will be voting against it.
“I'm going to vote no. First, I don't think this shutdown had to happen. You have about 70% agreement among Americans that these tax credits should be included in the budget, and so I think they should have been included from the beginning,” he said.
Castro cautioned that even if the Senate package clears the upper chamber, the House of Representatives may not schedule a vote.
“The problem is that the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, he takes his orders from the president only. He has not even guaranteed that we'll take a vote in the House of Representatives so the Senate could vote to pass these tax credits. But then if the speaker won't put it up for a vote in the house, you're back to square one. And so that's problematic,” he said.
Castro told TPR If the House does act, he has not yet been officially informed when he is needed to return to Washington D.C. Members of Congress were briefed that they’d get 36 hours' notice to return for the budget vote. So if a vote is called the timing is uncertain. Castro said it wouldn’t happen until “probably sometime between Wednesday and Friday.”
But the longer the wait for the final vote and the time required for President Trump to sign it into law, the longer many Americans will go without SNAP benefits. Additionally, government employees will be unpaid, and domestic air travel will be in chaos.
As for Castro’s political ambitions, he said he isn’t ready to make an announcement yet on his plan, but he is expecting to run for re-election in 2026 for the 20th Congressional District.
With current Attorney General Ken Paxton leaving that post to run for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, the Texas Democratic Party views 2026 as a critical election year and a rare opportunity for a statewide breakthrough. But Castro told TPR that he was not considering running for Texas attorney general or for U.S. Senate.
“I had talked to Beto O'Rourke, Colin Allred and James Talarico on multiple occasions about trying to put together a slate. I was hoping that there would be some combination that we could have of people running for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and the U.S. Senate. And at one point I told a few of them I would consider running for attorney general if folks could figure out the rest. But we just couldn't get there,” he said.
Castro said he is looking forward to supporting the Democratic candidates who do decide to run for those offices.
