The Greater Des Moines Partnership has canceled its annual lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., next month because of the increasing cases of COVID-19. In a statement, officials with the Partnership said there are quite a few protocols in place in Washington that would make the trip different from what it has been in the past. Many congressional offices have capacity limits on face-to-face meetings and many federal agency offices are closed. The trip was canceled last year because of the pandemic, and a series of virtual meetings and presentations were held instead. The Partnership had hoped to return to an in-person trip to Washington Sept. 22-24, but announced Tuesday that it would cancel the visit because of the surge in the delta variant of the virus. “While disappointing, the Partnership team felt canceling the trip was the right precaution to take to put the health of the community first,” officials said. The Partnership will plan the DMDC trip for May 2022, its traditional time frame for the visit.