U.S. Representative Mike Rogers (R-AL03), the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigate the basing process for U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) permanent headquarters. This follows Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s request for an Inspector General investigation on Wednesday.
Chairman Rogers has requested that GAO investigate the process between the completion of their previous report in June 2022 and President Biden’s selection of Colorado Springs as the permanent headquarters for USSPACECOM.
“National security decisions of this magnitude and significant economic interest require the process to be standardized, repeatable, transparent, and deliberate,” Rogers wrote in the letter. “Based on numerous administration officials talking to the press, the decision by President Biden appears to be anything but. Preferential decision-making by the President because of certain state laws has widely been publicized as a major factor but was never included in the basing requirements.”
“Long-term, permanent basing decisions should stand up to scrutiny and not be politically motivated based on social policy preferences or based on advocacy by Administration officials,” Rogers continued. “Instead, such a process should remain analytical and focused on clearly announced criteria and requirements that can be publicly scrutinized. Anything but a transparent process played out in the final decision for USSPACECOM headquarters under this Administration. The public deserves an independent review to understand how this basing process went awry and failed to follow transparent and repeatable steps which would have garnered trust in the final basing decision for USSPACECOM headquarters.”
The letter is addressed to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro:
“The decision to locate Space Command at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, was made in the waning days of the Trump Administration by the Pentagon, which set criteria for the possible relocation. Two independent reviews confirmed that Redstone Arsenal met those criteria better than any other possible site. Colorado finished fourth behind Nebraska and San Antonio, Texas. Colorado, however, is a swing state that voted for Biden.”
“Not only is it outrageous, but also unfortunate for the American people to hear that the Secretary of the Air Force allowed politics to circumvent his, and the Department of Defense’s, own basing selection process that determined Huntsville, Alabama as the preferred location of SPACECOM,” said Congressman Robert Aderholt (R-AL04) in a statement at the time. “Over and over again, the legitimate process proved that Alabama was the right choice for SPACECOM HQ. Unfortunately for this nation, this decision is the latest chapter in the long saga of the Biden Administration’s failing national security record, and I know the majority of the American people feel the same way. As a nation, we must do better. The precedent that has been set today should sound the alarm for the future of strategic, national security decision-making processes and lands a direct hit to the future of state’s rights.”
The Alabama delegation has said that this decision is not final, but at this point, it seems unlikely that they will ever have the votes in Congress to overturn the President’s decision.
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