Rio Grande City Mayor Joel Villarreal, and other city officials attended a discussion with Congressman Henry Cuellar held at the South Texas College Starr County Campus on Tuesday, March 30. Following the discussion, the City was awarded $3.16 million by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
“This bold legislation meets the needs of our communities: putting vaccines in arms, money in pockets, workers back on the job and children back in the classroom safely,” declared Congressman Henry Cuellar.
The county of Starr received $19,140,000 in total from the American Rescue Plan funds to address the health and economic fallout of the pandemic. Schools in the area will also receive $78,378,000 as a result of the legislation to safely reopen.
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, also called the COVID-19 Stimulus Package or American Rescue Plan, is a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill passed by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021, to speed up the United States’ recovery from the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing recession. First proposed on January 14, 2021, the package builds upon many of the measures in the CARES Act from March 2020 and in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, from December.
