Tampa Bay

Kathy Castor voted against hurricane relief 11 times, supposedly blocking $151.43 billion in federal disaster assistance. That’s the accusation circulating in an article from West Orlando News, courtesy of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Eleven votes. More than $151 billion. You can almost hear the ominous music playing behind the next Republican campaign commercial.

There’s just one problem. When you examine the actual congressional records, the story begins to fall apart. The article counts votes against massive spending bills covering everything from FEMA to immigration enforcement, along with a procedural vote that had little to do with disaster relief itself. Apparently, voting against a bill containing dozens of provisions means you oppose every dollar in it. Congressional voting records are wonderfully useful things, particularly when you select only the votes that support your accusation.

Here’s what the article conveniently forgot to mention. Castor voted FOR $6.4 billion in FEMA disaster funding in 2011, FOR $15.25 billion in emergency disaster assistance in 2017, and FOR legislation providing $29 billion to FEMA following Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024. That last bill passed 366–34. Every single vote against it came from a Republican. Funny how that little detail escaped the article’s attention.

The NRCC is entitled to campaign against Kathy Castor. Voters are entitled to know what Congress actually did. We’ve examined the votes, the bills, and the facts the original article left out. Before accepting the claim that Castor repeatedly voted against hurricane relief, read the full article. The congressional record tells a much different story, and the facts are considerably less flattering to the people spreading this accusation.