The House Armed Services Committee is holding hearings on Thursday into what went into the decision to reverse course and take the award of Space Command from Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, and instead leave it in Colorado Springs even though the Air Force’s dissatisfaction with Colorado Springs precipitated the search for a new location in the first place.
The committee is chaired by Congressman Mike Rogers (R-Alabama). Rogers said in his opening statement on Thursday that the Committee “will examine irregularities” in how the Biden administration handled the Space Command relocation.
“Today we will examine the striking irregularities in the Biden Administration’s handling of United States Space Command (SPACECOM) Headquarters,” Chairman Rogers said. “Unfortunately, the Biden Administration has chosen to play politics with our national security. After a long and competitive national process, Huntsville, Alabama, was selected as the best location to host United States Space Command or SPACECOM.”
“Huntsville beat out, in order: Albuquerque, New Mexico; Bellevue, Nebraska; San Antonio, Texas; and in fifth place, Colorado Springs, Colorado,” Rogers continued. “Since the end of that competition, which was validated by both the GAO and the Biden DoD IG, individuals within the Air Force and the Biden Administration have attempted to circumvent the results and place SPACECOM in Colorado Springs in the name of readiness.”
“This is not, and has never been, about readiness,” Rep. Rogers said. “General [Chance] Saltzman, the general officer with day-to-day responsibility for the readiness of more than 90% of SPACECOM’s assigned forces, says, “It is my belief that the permanent location of USSPACECOM headquarters will not impact the readiness of U.S. Space Force forces.””
“General [James] Dickinson has stated that Colorado Springs is the “unmatched” choice for recruiting civilians to work at SPACECOM,” Rogers argued. “Yet, he’s currently using over 360 contractors to fill civilian staffing shortfalls.”
Rogers claims the decision to keep Space Command at Colorado Springs will cost taxpayers $426 million more than Huntsville, Alabama, for headquarters operations over the next 15 years.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars in readiness lost just so the President can try to endear himself to a purple state prior to next year’s election,” Rogers stated.
Rogers accused the Air Force and the White House of “a string of delays and fuzzy math with one goal: White-wash this Administration’s decision to disregard the outcome of a competitive and deliberate selection process that Alabama won.”
Rogers said he can show through his investigation that “SPACECOM has already spent over $127 million in Colorado. Including tens of millions of dollars to put up to 800 of our most critical space warfighting decision-makers in an abandoned, 41-year-old factory. Not on a military base, but nine and a half miles away from the base. Not in a secure area. An industrial building next to a middle school, around the corner from an apartment complex, and across the street from a neighborhood. This LEASED space had no proper fence, obsolete security systems, and inadequate facilities to handle the highly classified systems our space capabilities rely on.”
“Documents obtained by the committee show that Colorado Springs is out of space and out of infrastructure despite this spending spree,” Rogers continued. “Sensitive equipment is running in buildings without proper backup power, and there is already a massive office space shortfall on the bases in the Colorado Springs area.”
“There is no justification for these actions except political considerations,” Rogers said. “It is indefensible to turn the fifth-place finisher into the winner of this basing competition.”
After the hearing, Rogers said on X, “In the @HASCRepublicans hearing today, it became obvious that the Biden Administration’s cited “military readiness” concerns are a total fabrication. I am demanding that the DoD Inspector General investigate this heinous meddling in a valid military process.”
Members of the Alabama Congressional Delegation insist that the fight for Space Command is not over, even though it increasingly appears unlikely that the Biden Administration will admit their error.
Rogers is in his eleventh term representing Alabama’s Third Congressional District.
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