The San Antonio Veterans Advisory Commission floated canceling Fort Sam Houston’s Veterans Day ceremony at a meeting last month and it was immediately met with outcry from veterans. Organizers announced this week that this year’s ceremony will continue as scheduled.
Read more Old foes Nirenberg and Von Dohlen face off in lone Bexar County Judge debate
Next year is a different story, said the cemetery’s director.
Fort Sam Houston Cemetery director Gerald Lefler said at a follow-up meeting Monday that no changes would be made to VA ceremonies this year in honor of the 250th anniversary of the country.
But he said they are still thinking of canceling next year’s event given that a separate San Antonio ceremony has both outside help in putting it on and higher attendance, and Fort Sam still holds a Memorial Day ceremony every year.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which manages the cemetery, considered canceling the ceremony each of the past two years, but separate efforts by then-U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a U.S. Navy veteran, saved it.
In 2024, the VA, citing low-attendance, sought to consolidate and cut costs by discontinuing the Fort Sam Houston ceremony, and move to only having one event at the San Antonio National Cemetery. convinced the agency to keep both ceremonies.
Then, during the government shutdown of 2025, the ceremony almost didn’t happen, until Gonzales and his office organized it themselves. Both times, local veterans objected to the proposed cancellations.
Gonzales resigned from Congress in April following sexual misconduct allegations, and his office currently sits vacant.
During the debacle, leaders emphasizedthe impact of a lack of congressional representation for the roughly 800,000 people in the district, with U.S. census data indicating that more than 56,000 veterans and military personnel are residing within.
“There’s a big gap where veterans aren’t getting support,” said Maira Alejandra Carrier, an Army veteran who is San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones’ representative on the commission.
While congressional representatives do handle legislative matters, a core part of their duties is responding to constituent inquiries.
“One estimate is that some 20-30% of congressional office budgets can go toward constituent engagement, and veterans’ claims are commonly understood to comprise a significant part of that,” the Yale Law Journal found in a 2025 paper.
Congressional offices can help veterans get access to VA benefits, recover military records or medals and assist with burial benefits, among other things.
Carrier said with Gonzales being gone, veterans of the district are not getting the support they need, and they are instead having to seek out help from nearby congressional offices.
“Right now we have one of our Texas representatives, the 23rd Congressional District, seat open…That leaves a bigger gap of veterans who are not getting the support from their Congress members, they have no resources,” she said.
After Gonzales resigned, the U.S. House of Representatives’ office of the clerk issued a standard press release stating that constituent services would continue, as required by law.
“Although the scope of the vacant congressional office is limited, constituents of the district are invited to contact this interim office for information and assistance as indicated below,” it read.
However, it also notes that district residents interested in continuing their services must sign an updated privacy release form.
The Constituent Services Representative for the district, Mario Montano, said they have noticed a drop in the amount of veteran requests they are receiving.
“We think that they’ve been trying to reach out to another office to get assistance.”
He also said they only have one staffer handling these requests.
In the nearby District 21, staff said they have taken incoming calls from veterans, and redirected them to either of the two Texas Senators for further aid.
“Our office has taken incoming questions and as always stands ready to help veterans and all Texans navigate available resources and connect with the appropriate offices or agencies,” a spokesperson for Rep. Chip Roy (R-Dripping Springs) said.
“While Texas’ 23rd District continues to operate under the supervision of the House Clerk, we will do all we can and encourage those veterans to contact either of Texas’ U.S. senators for assistance.”
Read more Sources: OLLU President Abel Chávez to announce resignation on Friday
A different member resigned the same day as Gonzales under similar circumstances, former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), and a special election for his seat has already been held and a new voting member has been sworn in.
However, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott opted not to call a special election for the vacant TX23 seat, and with less than one month before the November midterms, it appears the district will remain unrepresented until a new member is sworn in this January.
“As a veteran and knowing firsthand the veteran needs here in San Antonio and throughout Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, it is disappointing that Governor Abbott decided to leave that district without a voice for nearly seven months following the resignation of Tony Gonzales,” Mayor Jones, an Air Force veteran who formerly ran to represent the district, told the Report.
“I hope this November finally brings that district a voice ready to advocate for its veterans.”
San Antonio veteran Steven Price said prior to Gonzales’ resignation, he was actively communicating with the office about legislation to expand the PACT Act, which gave VA benefits for veterans exposed to toxins, to include those who served in the Panama Canal region.
It’s a deeply personal issue for Price. He developed chronic B-cell leukemia from toxic exposure that he believes he encountered during his service, but Panama is not explicitly included in the act, making it difficult for veterans to get their VA claims approved.
But now that the district lacks a voting member, the advocacy work has stalled. Open offices have no ability to engage with legislative priorities.
“I haven’t had any response…there was a meeting in the past over toxic exposure, and that too is pending. No answer,” Price said.
Price said when he called the district offices, no one answered. All of the regional district offices have been condensed into the San Antonio district office, no other offices are active except the D.C. office.
There were formerly 5 local offices in the district that runs from San Antonio to El Paso, includes several military bases and is home to nearly 1 million people. Veterans who may be used to calling their regional offices and are unaware of the consolidation must instead contact the San Antonio or D.C. offices.
Navy veteran and TX23 resident Anthony Amesquita Jr. said he has had difficulty getting assistance about issues he’s concerned with, given the limited scope of the office. He sought help with starting a congressional inquiry into a veteran service organization, but such inquiries need an active member of congress to sponsor them, an open office is unable to assist.
“That kind of put me in a crunch because I was like, okay, do I have to wait until somebody gets elected and then tell them what’s going on?” he said.
Gonzales was very active in the veterans community during his tenure, securing millions in federal funding for military installations and projects through his positions on the powerful House Appropriations and Homeland Security Committees.
Aside from the legislative and constituent duties, members also have a platform to bring awareness to certain issues. While the current TX 23 office is limited in the advocacy it can engage in, Gonzales was able to bring light to issues like the Veterans Day ceremony.
Lefler said Gonzales’ advocacy on behalf of concerned constituents not only kept the ceremony alive, but showed him how attached the community was to this event.
“A former congressman got involved, and then it got in the press, and people talked to me, and I talked to him… And there was a lot more attachment to the ceremony than I realized,” Lefler said about the Fort Sam Houston Veterans Day ceremony.
“I had made a mistake in doing it the way I was doing it… If we were going to do this, we needed to get in touch with the stakeholders, interact with them, and figure out what we’re going to do.”
He says they are continuing to solicit opinions on canceling next year’s ceremony or finding an organization to partner with, but given that roughly 70% of his staff are also veterans, they would like the holiday off.
“Fort Sam Houston, as far as I know, and I was able to find out, is the only one that’s being actively held that does not have a VSO (veteran service organization) as the planning managing partner of the ceremony,” Lefler said.
The San Antonio Report’s military and veterans coverage is supported by Report for America.
