Lawmakers hit Biden over pick of Colorado over Alabama for Space Command headquarters

A version of this story appeared in the Threat Status newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive Threat Status delivered directly to your inbox each Wednesday.

The powerful chairman of the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday threatened to freeze all project funds for a permanent headquarters for the new U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs as lawmakers escalated the battle over President Biden’s choice of Colorado over a competing site in Alabama.

Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, Alabama Republican, accused the White House of keeping the Space Command in Colorado based on partisan politics rather than cost-effectiveness or military necessity.

“The president can intervene and tell his department personnel what he wants to do, [but] Congress gets to decide what we’re going to authorize and what we’re going to pay for,” Mr. Rogers said Thursday during a hearing to investigate Mr. Biden’s July 31 order.

Mr. Biden went against the recommendation of Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall in rejecting Huntsville, Alabama’s Redstone Arsenal as the best choice for the newest branch of the U.S. military.

Mr. Rogers said the Government Accountability Office and the Biden administration’s Defense Department inspector general both determined that the decision to base Space Command in Alabama had been proper. Mr. Kendall also recommended moving the provisional headquarters now in Colorado Springs to Huntsville, but ultimately was overruled by the president.

Mr. Kendall told lawmakers the most important factors in the basing decision were the cost to the taxpayer and any potential risks and disruptions during a transition period if the Space Command headquarters was moved out of Colorado Springs.

Supporters of the Alabama site said the military would save about $426 million by building Space Command’s permanent headquarters in Alabama rather than in Colorado. But Mr. Kendall said he now supports the president’s decision to keep the organization in Colorado.

“President Biden exercised his authority as commander in chief and chief executive to make the final decision,” he said, acknowledging that it was “very unusual” for a president to get that involved in a military basing decision.

Even committee Democrats criticized the labored process and politicking that led up to Mr. Biden’s decision.

“Having a predictable and transparent process is essential to maintaining people’s faith in the rigor and fairness of the eventual result,” Washington state Rep. Adam Smith, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said. “Unfortunately, … we have had an unnecessary, tortured and opaque process that has resulted in confusion, anger and doubt about both the process and the result.”

Some GOP lawmakers accused the White House of punishing Alabama for its more restrictive abortion laws or for its desire to punish GOP Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville for a bitter stalemate over Pentagon abortion policy that has put hundreds of Senate confirmations of military officers on hold.

Biden administration officials have denied either was a factor in the Space Command decision.

Army Gen. James Dickinson, who leads Space Command, told lawmakers he agreed with Mr.  Biden’s decision, saying it will “further enable the command to maintain mission readiness at the highest levels while imposing the least disruption to the force.”

Gen. Dickinson said he expects Space Command to become fully operational at its current location by the end of the year. 

Space Command’s provisional headquarters in Colorado Springs is capable of carrying out its mission for the next eight years under existing leases. The construction of a new permanent headquarters in Alabama will have no impact on the operational readiness of the force, Mr. Rogers countered.

“Everyone in this room knows that,” he said. “We need to demonstrate to the American people that preparedness and not politics determines important investments like this.”