Space Command to remain in Colorado: NAJ screen shot

By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joe Biden reverses Donald Trump’s decision to move the headquarters of U.S. Space Command from Colorado to Alabama, senior military officials announced Monday.

Former Democratic Senator from Alabama Doug Jones said while he is disappointed, the decision was best for national security and was not a political decision.

The new military outfit was to be moved from Peterson Air Force Base outside of Colorado Springs to Redstone Arsenal, an Army installation in Huntsville, Ala. But President Biden made the decision that doing so would be too disruptive to military readiness, siding with Colorado lawmakers who have protested the plan for more than two years.

“Critics had said that the Trump administration’s decision was rushed through as the former president left office and appeared intended to reward a deeply conservative state by moving an influential military headquarters out of one that leans Democratic,” according to breaking news coverage from the Washington Post.

Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement that Biden’s decision was made “following a deliberate evaluation” and after consultation with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who, along with Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Army Gen. James H. Dickinson, who leads Space Command, all support the decision, Ryder said.

“Locating Headquarters U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs ultimately ensures peak readiness in the space domain for our nation during a critical period,” Ryder said.

Space Command was established in the 1980s to oversee the military’s vast array of satellites and coordinate with other military divisions. It was merged into U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska in 2002 before being reestablished in 2019, as moves by Russia and China allegedly forced U.S. officials to assign higher priority to a domain where the Pentagon once had little competition, according to the Post.

A senior defense official and a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity, said that Dickinson recommended keeping Space Command in Colorado, while Kendall recommended allowing the move to Huntsville to go forward. Austin presented both viewpoints to Biden. The senior defense official declined to say whether the defense secretary favored one recommendation over the other.

Kendall said in a statement that the Air Force “will now work expeditiously to implement the decision.”

Space Command is expected to reach full operational capability in Colorado next month, and its estimated 1,400 jobs is expected to yield nearly $1 billion in annual economic spending to the area, according to previous estimates.

Had the command been uprooted and relocated to Alabama, its readiness would be “degraded” for years, potentially until the mid 2030s, the senior administration official said.

Dickinson explained that such a move would be detrimental as the United States seeks to keep pace with China in the competition in space, which has been called a new Space Race.

Biden, who has often talked about the need to compete with China, was “sufficiently convinced” of that argument, the official said.

Biden’s choice, first reported by the Associated Press, was cheered by lawmakers from Colorado.

“Today’s decision restores integrity to the Pentagon’s basing process and sends a strong message that national security and the readiness of our Armed Forces drive our military decisions,” said Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.), in a joint statement with Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.). “Colorado is the rightful home for U.S. Space Command, and our state will continue to lead America in space for years to come.”

Hickenlooper added that Biden’s decision “firmly rejects the idea that politics — instead of national security — should determine basing decisions central to our national security.”

Republicans from Alabama, of course, expressed outraged.

Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, pledged to continue investigating the matter to determine whether the Biden administration “intentionally misled” lawmakers about its “deliberate taxpayer-funded manipulation of the selection process.” He blamed the decision on “far-left politics” that he said had nothing to do with national security.

The decision comes amid a worsening feud between the administration and another Alabama Republican, Senator Tommy Tuberville, who has placed a long-term hold on the promotion of hundreds of generals and admirals in an unrelated dispute over a Pentagon policy that reimburses certain expenses incurred by U.S. service members who travel out of state to receive an abortion. The policy took effect last year, after a Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that for nearly 50 years protected the right to terminate a pregnancy.

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In a statement, Tuberville accused Biden of having politicized “what had been a fair and objective competition — not because the facts had changed, but because the political party of the sitting President had changed.”

The decision to bypass Alabama and other conservative states “looks like blatant patronage politics, and it sets a dangerous precedent that military bases are now to be used as rewards for political supporters rather than for our security,” Tuberville said, adding, “This is absolutely not over.”

Of course it is over, now that the President of the United States has made the call. Tuberville’s comments are clearly disingenuous, since it was clear when Trump made the announcement to move it that he was making a “spoils system” decision, not a decision based on the facts and “merit.”

Precisely how the Trump administration came to support the move to Huntsville is still a mystery, according to the Post, although not to educated and informed observers of how Trump conducted business in the White House and as commander-in-chief.

At the time, senior U.S. officials said that influential people with ties to Alabama, including outgoing Senator Richard Shelby of Tuscaloosa, had pitched the idea to Trump directly. Tuberville, a Trump supporter who had not yet been sworn into office, also favored the move, those people said.

A Government Accountability Office report released a year ago said that, under Trump, the Air Force had “largely followed its established strategic basing process” to determine the long-term home of Space Command. Beginning in March 2020, however, the Air Force implemented a revised process that fully or substantially met only seven of 21 best practices for deciding were the command would be located. The Air Force responded by stating that the service did not think those steps were relevant or required.

Former officials who attended a key meeting Jan. 11, 2021, told the GAO that there were “different opinions” within the Trump administration about “the best location for the headquarters.” There was no consensus among those interviewed about who, ultimately, made the decision to select Redstone Arsenal.

Senior Air Force officials who attended that meeting told GAO investigators that they were prepared to discuss both Peterson and Redstone Arsenal as options. The report said that Barbara Barrett, the Air Force secretary at the time, told investigators that “she wanted to ensure that any decision would stand up to scrutiny and not be reversed,” and that she “viewed it as her mission to make a fair decision that was not political or based on advocacy.”

A separate investigation by the Defense Department inspector general found last year that the Air Force process leading to the selection of Huntsville was “reasonable.” The report also recommended that the Pentagon establish policy and procedures for implementing basing actions for similar headquarters in the future.

Former Alabama Senator Doug Jones, a Democrat who describes himself as a long-time personal friend of Joe Biden, said he was “very disappointed” in the president’s decision for Space Command to remain in Colorado and not move to Alabama as was originally announced.

“I think it’s fair to say that everyone knew where I stood on the issue and over the last couple of years have expressed that to the President and folks at the Pentagon,” Jones said in a statement posted on Twitter. “But while I personally disagree with the decision the one thing I am absolutely confident of is that Joe Biden made the decision without regard to politics and instead based his decision on his judgment of what is in the best interest of the national security of the United States. Period.”

He said that may be hard for people to believe that “in this day and age where everything is viewed in a political lens” that the President can put that aside and do what he thinks is the right thing for the country.

“But he has been doing that throughout his Presidency,” Jones said. “Here he was damned if (he) did and damned if he didn’t. It’s easy for Alabama Democrats to blame Tuberville who for damn sure is playing politics with our military…

“Many Republicans will say it is about abortion and punishment for Alabama’s draconian law. Many more will say he is caving to blue state Senators. Anybody can find ‘politics’ to blame if they want to,” he said.

“But I have known this man for 45 years now and know that he does not think that way. He thinks national security and having our military the strongest in the world. And frankly he tends to side with his military leaders more than others because of the tremendous respect he has for them and everyone who wears the uniform. You might disagree with that, but that is who he is and that is what formed his decision.”

I am very disappointed in the President’s decision for Space Command to remain in Colorado and not move to Alabama as was originally announced. I think it’s fair to say that everyone knew where I stood on the issue and over the last couple of years have expressed that to the…

— Doug Jones (@DougJones) August 1, 2023