The 'Gone Fishing' sign is up at City Hall this week, as members of City Council, as well as business leaders and members of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce head to Washington DC for the 39th annual S.A. to D.C. lobbying tour, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Some 130 people are making the trip, which will include visits with all fo the local Members of Congress, the two Texas Senators, as well as House Speaker Paul Ryan and officials of the Trump Adminsitration.
Chamber President Richard Perez says mission number one is to try to nail down direct flights from San Antonio to Reagan National Airport, in the shadow of the Capitol.Perez pointed out that the contingent itself is taking several round-about routes to Washington, demonstrating the need for a direct flight.
He says with the massive military, cyber security, and national security presence in San Antonio, it is key to make sure they can commute easily to and from the Pentagon.
"Nine thousand service members are flying to Washington DC from San Antonio every single year," he said. "Now they either have to fly to Dulles as we are doing today, fly into Baltimore, or flying somewhere else, changing planes and flying to National. That is totally inefficient."
Congress has to approve the adding of a direct flight from San Antonio to Reagan National, under existing federal law.
Perez says the group will also be looking for new military missions, even though the Trump Administration has indicated that no round of Base Realignment and Closing will take place this year.
"They are saying 'we need to be much more focused, to make sure our military resources are being used to the maximum extent," he said.
Perez says the trips to Washington DA over the past four decades have been useful in beginning to break through the bureaucracy. He cited last year's announcement that construction will begin this year on a new federal courthouse downtown is the product of several years of lobbying on SA to DC efforts.
WOAI PHOTO