The bureaucracy in charge of the military’s healthcare system could be headed to San Antonio.
The move could bring as many 3,300 people and their families to the city if the entire headquarters relocates, but it remains unclear exactly how many workers or which portions of the organization could move.
Recent moves at City Hall and a letter from area congressmen to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggest ongoing talks over uprooting the Defense Health Agency’s headquarters from Falls Church, Va.
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City officials and the military have been mum, but sources suggest an announcement may be coming as soon as next week.
The renewed talks come two years after unit officials and city leaders denied the idea was under consideration and with San Antonio fighting to hang on to military personnel.
Hegseth’s Pentagon has already yanked two military headquarters, and most of their 1,100 workers, from the city. It’s also stalled the Air Force’s plans to raise the status of its cyber hub at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.
For years, the city and county have been wooing the Pentagon to bring more of its health care system to San Antonio, which already is considered the home of military medicine. And they’re ready to spend to make it happen.
Each of the local governments have budgeted $10 million to refurbish an old building on Fort Sam Houston for the unit, and Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones signed an ordinance in October requesting another $10 million in a state Defense Economic Adjustment Assistance Grant.
The combined $30 million will go toward the $40 million required to fix up a former World War II-era hospital called the South Beach Pavilion on Fort Sam. City budget documents say the four-story, 109,000-square-foot structure that was built in 1931 could support 600 workers.
Fort Sam will also have more office space opening as members of Army North and Army South depart for Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and the recently created Western Hemisphere Command.
Like her predecessor, Mayor Ortiz Jones is optimistic for the health agency’s growth in San Antonio.
“Last week, I spoke with Defense Health Agency leadership while I was in D.C., and I believe we remain very competitive,” she said in a statement Friday. “As Military City USA, San Antonio would be an ideal place for DHA, especially given our exceptional medical offerings and burgeoning tech hub, and we look forward to receiving additional information from DHA before the end of the year.”
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‘Relocate to Joint Base San Antonio’
About the time the city made the state grant request, Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and Reps. Tony Gonzales, Chip Roy and John Carter wrote a letter asking Hegseth to stop the health agency from renewing its lease or attempting to buy its current headquarters building in Virginia.
“Instead, we request DHA relocate to Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA), a course of action that was previously directed during the first Trump Administration, is fiscally responsible, and will improve operational efficiencies for military medicine,” they wrote.
The lease for the agency’s current location in Falls Church has long been criticized as too costly and the Pentagon was looking to buy the 44-acre complex with 686,000 square feet of office space for $225 million.  There would be no lease or property acquisition costs for the organization on Fort Sam.
The Texas congressmen wrote that a move to San Antonio would save $87 million dollars.
U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales said there were other reasons for the move.
“San Antonio’s military infrastructure combined with investments from UT Health in San Antonio and our renowned healthcare industry makes our city a prime location to house DHA,” the San Antonio Republican said in statement.
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U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat whose district includes Falls Church and the health agency’s current headquarters, said he was not aware of a pending announcement about the organization’s future.
“I hope and expect to see DHA headquarters and the dedicated public servants who power its work remain in Northern Virginia, where they have the robust infrastructure and federal resources necessary to provide the care military families depend on,” he said in a statement. “Any move would needlessly harm the agency’s staff and therefore its mission.”
With a global staff of 130,000, the Defense Health Agency manages programs worth $100 billion, including more than 700 medical facilities around the world and all aspects of the Defense Department’s health system.
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“Reorganizing” units and moving people to “consolidate” organizations along with partnerships with local governments work as a sort of hedge against the Base Realignment and Closure Commission process which periodically shutters bases to cut costs.
The health agency already has a large and growing footprint in San Antonio with Brooke Army Medical Center, Wilford Hall and more than 3,000 employees working at nearly two dozen sites across the city.
JBSA and DHA officials declined to comment.
This article originally published at Pentagon in talks to move major agency to San Antonio. What it could mean..