Washington D.C. Advocacy Trip Gains Federal Support for Del Rio

Mayor Arreola and City Manager Burkhart flew to D.C. to advocate for city issues such as water and wastewater funding, and airline recruitment.

The City of Del Rio visited Washington D.C. for an advocacy trip last week, regarding “key projects that will shape our community’s future.” Mayor Al Arreola and City Manager Shawna Burkhart took our small town issues straight to the top, seeking assistance directly from the federal government. They crammed 7 meetings into 2 days, sourcing programs for water and wastewater loans, airline service recruitment, Laughlin Airforce Base resiliency, and the 2nd International Bridge.

“The most productive meeting was with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),” said Burkhart. She spoke highly about the productivity of their EPA meeting. They met with Jorianne Jernberg, director of the WIFIA Management Division for the EPA. Jernberg manages federal long-term, low-cost supplemental loans for regionally and nationally significant projects, that are provided through the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA).

Burkhart joined News Anchor Michelle Gonzalez in studio for the CDR24 Morning News Show on Saturday 3/8/25 to share details about their trip. Burkhart said, “Our most productive meeting was with the EPA, and we were able to target some loan funds that are the most flexible out there, they will provide 49% of our project costs, they cap the projects at 30 million and they have flexible draw down schedules. An interest rate only occurs when you draw it down, so if we only use 10 million, we are only paying interest on 10 million, versus the full 30, so it’s an excellent program.”

It is a 6-month process for the city to apply and be approved for the EPA loan. It offers the flexibility in developing a more gradual progression of a water and sewer rate plan, “we can draft rates based on how much we need per year, and our utility rates then would reflect that,” said Burkhart. They work with WFS, a nonprofit grant writing organization that works with border cities on grant writing to assist us in getting some funds, so there is no fee for their services. They will start the process with WFS to become fully qualified “within the next week to submit our initial request,” added Burkhart.

Arreola and Burkhart also met with the US Department of Transportation “regarding regional airline service and our recruitment of a regional airline service,” said Burkhart. She explained, “there are a lot of nuances to airline recruitment which is why we have a specialist consultant [Volaire] to do that because there are so many moving parts.” Airlines must be incentivized to operate in Del Rio, which requires grant funding. Also, the city requires cooperation from two agencies, a regional and national airline, one to land at DRT, and the other to receive us at the destination gate. They have a few bites on the hook, but Burkhart said, “right now we are not able to name anything because we are still in the negotiating stage.”

“We have a grant also that we were able to acquire that helps us incentivize a carrier to come and join us, I believe also that the EDC has participated in that process in incentivizing a regional carrier. And obviously all of the businesses in town, all of the CBP, and Laughlin Air Force Base, all the maquilas from around Acuña and here in town, all of those individuals have helped us and their businesses in trying to recruit an airline,” said Burkhart.

Meetings were held with the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (OLDCC) “regarding loans for water infrastructure improvements that can provide resiliency for LAF” and with the US Dept. of State “on our presidential permit process for the 2nd International Bridge, said Burkhart. “We were able to finally have some brief visits with congressional delegations including US representative Tony Gonzalez and his staff, U.S. Senator John Cornyn and his staff, and then finally U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s staff.”

The city is working diligently on critical issues. “Water and wastewater are my #1 issue, there is nothing more important to the city, other than maybe regional airline service.” The city covered the travel costs for the trip. “Any advocacy is always part of the work that we do,” said Burkhart.

Originally, the trip was meant to be a joint effort between the city and different entities, but in the end, Del Rio representatives traveled alone. Partners pulled out, seemingly to avoid unnecessary spending, but Burkhart could not cancel the trip. “I still have water and wastewater issues that I have to address, so I had to go, so that’s exactly what I did,” said Burkhart. She added, “we were coordinating a joint effort to meet with different entities on behalf of the City of Del Rio and the citizens of Del Rio. But several entities did choose to back out before we even finalized the trip plans, and I had already scheduled some meetings in addition to that trip that I needed to attend because they were related to funding for water and wastewater… Once I get an appointment, I’m not letting that go.”

Burkhart shared a personal connection to Washington D.C. She said, “I used to live there when I was young, my father worked for US Dept of Agriculture, he was National Program Officer, he became a regional director of Agriculture for the State of Illinois.” However, while they were there, it was all business. Burkhart said they only had time to visit historical landmarks in which they had meetings, “all the federal buildings, all very unique, all the congress are beautiful, we really enjoyed seeing what we could in a short hurry, because we were just running between offices, so we didn’t get much time to do sight-seeing.”

Another advocacy trip is scheduled to take place in a few weeks on April 1-2 in Austin. However, this time, different entities should be joining Arreola and Burkhart in attendance.