CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — United States Senator John Cornyn visited Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi Shoreline on August 24. He thanked the local healthcare workers and listened from community leaders on how the CARES Act, which was signed in March, impacted the region.
"There is more we need to do but first I think we need to look at what we've already done and see what's working and what's not working so that we can come back and deal with this on an ongoing basis," said Cornyn.
Senator Cornyn stood by as local leaders explained how they put the federal funding to use.
"We have used it wisely," commented Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales. She said the entire court system was able to transition to a remote environment almost over night.
"Every one of our important County services needed to be completely thought of in a new direction. We were able to do that because of those initial dollars," said Canales.
As of August 24, the Corpus Christi area received more than $160 million in coronavirus relief resources.
"The first thing that we did, Doctor Blow and the judge were very instrumental in this, I believe we set up the first drive through testing facility in the state of Texas," said Corpus Christi Mayor Joe McComb.
He added that the funding allowed the City to establish testing sites, help the police department with personal protective equipment, provide the utility assistance grant and nonprofit recovery, as well as many others.
"We established the Corpus Christi Small Disaster Relief Fund Program to try to help our small businesses, because you know and I think everyone knows that small businesses are the backbone of the community," said McComb.
Many others also like Dr. Osbert Blow with Christus Spohn said the funding allowed them to stay safe while attending to the needs of the community.
"Everything that we have received here as a community and at Christus Spohn has been really a blessing," said Blow.
Schools, including Texas A&M Corpus Christi and the Corpus Christi Independent School District, also received help.
"Just over $10 million in CARES act support came to TAMUCC," said President and CEO of the university, Kelly M. Miller. "We added over 30 additional wireless access points which allowed us to social distance on campus, but also opened our parking lot to people who didn't have wireless internet so they could come and receive that access through our campus."
"Access to technology is a great challenge in our area and thanks to CARES funding we have been able to place several large orders, and in CARES funding more than 12,000 devices to get into the hands of our students so that when our buildings must be closed, their education can continue," said Leanne Libby, the Director of Communications at CCISD.
Senator Cornyn said congress was working on moving forward in a second coronavirus relief package, but he didn't have any progress to announce at the briefing.
"I'm more optimistic now than I have been in awhile that we will get to that next package," said Cornyn before he left.