President Biden on Monday ordered that the headquarters for the new U.S. Space Command will stay in Colorado Springs, Colorado, overturning a Trump administration decision to relocate the command to Huntsville, Alabama.
The Defense Department insisted the basing decision was the result of “an objective and deliberate process” designed to avoid the disruption and delays of a relocation. Colorado lawmakers praised the move. Alabama lawmakers were furious and accused the White House of playing politics with national security.
Mr. Biden’s military advisers were reportedly split on the two sites, although Huntsville had come out ahead in a Government Accountability Office location evaluation process. Alabama Rep. Dale Strong, a Republican who represents Huntsville, told AL.com on Monday that Mr. Biden’s decision was “shameful” and that politics clearly played a role.
“It is clear to anyone who has looked at the facts: Huntsville, Alabama, is the best place for U.S. Space Command headquarters,” Mr. Strong said. “It is shameful that the Biden administration is ignoring what is best for our nation’s security and is instead using their ’woke’ agenda to make this decision.”
The Defense Department said keeping Space Command in Colorado Springs will help ensure “peak readiness in the space domain” during a critical period as rivals, such as China, step up their military programs in space.
The Pentagon said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, and Gen. James Dickinson, commander of U.S. Space Command, supported President Biden’s decision to keep the headquarters in Colorado.
But the White House has also been engaged in a months-long battle with Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville because of his hold on military promotions for generals and admirals. Mr. Tuberville objects to a Pentagon policy that covers expenses for service members traveling to other states to have an abortion. White House national security spokesman John Kirby denied on CNN Monday that politics played any role in the Space Command decision.
After a fierce bidding competition, the Air Force chose Huntsville over 59 other cities more than 2 1/2 years ago, with Mr. Trump saying later he “single-handedly” engineered the move. But Mr. Biden put the brakes on that decision once he moved into the White House in 2021. Mr. Tuberville said Monday in a statement that the only thing that had changed in the selection process was the “political party of the sitting president.”
“Now, they are putting Space Command headquarters in a location that didn’t even make the top three” choices, he said.
The Air Force’s top three choices for Space Command headquarters were all in “red” states — Alabama, Nebraska and Texas. Mr. Biden’s decision to override the choice in favor of retaining the facility in a reliably Democratic state like Colorado looks like political patronage, critics said.
Mr. Tuberville also charged the White House with waiting until Congress had gone into its August recess and had already passed next year’s defense budget before announcing the decision.
Colorado lawmakers, by contrast, hailed the decision. The state’s backers noted that Colorado Springs is already home to the Air Force Academy, which now graduates Space Force guardians, and more than 24 military space missions, including three Space Force bases. A new headquarters in Alabama would not be fully operational until sometime after 2030, they said.
“For two and a half years we’ve known any objective analysis of this basing decision would reach the same conclusion we did, that Peterson Space Force Base is the best home for Space Command,” Sen. John Hickenlooper, Colorado Democrat, said in a statement. “Most importantly, this decision firmly rejects the idea that politics — instead of national security — should determine basing decisions central to our national security.”
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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