WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has decided to keep the United States. Space Command Headquarters in Colorado, overturning a last-minute decision by the Trump administration to move him to Alabama. The election ended months of thorny deliberations, but an Alabama lawmaker vowed to keep fighting.
US officials told The Associated Press on Monday that Biden was convinced by Space Command chief General James Dickinson, who argued that moving his headquarters now would jeopardize military readiness. However, Dickinson’s view was in contrast to that of Air Force leadership, who studied the issue carefully and determined that moving to Huntsville, Alabama, was the right decision.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of Biden’s rationale for the decision.
Announcing the plans, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said the decision was based on an “objective and deliberate process informed by data and analysis.” He said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin supported the president’s decision.
Reaction to the decision was swift and sharply divided, with Colorado lawmakers praising it and Alabama officials criticizing it as a political move. “This fight is far from over,” warned Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
Biden, US officials said, believes that keeping command in Colorado Springs would avoid a disruption in preparation that the move would cause, particularly as the United States races to compete with China in space. And they said Biden strongly believes that maintaining stability will help the military be more responsive in space over the next decade. Those factors, they said, outweighed what the president believed would be the minor benefits of moving to Alabama.
Biden’s decision angered Alabama lawmakers and is sure to fuel allegations that abortion policy played a role in the election. The location debate has become entangled in the ongoing battle between Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville and the Department of Defense on the measure to provide travel for troops seeking reproductive health care. Tuberville opposed the policy blocking hundreds of military promotions in protest.
US officials said the abortion issue had no effect on Biden’s decision. And they said the president hoped there would be different views on the matter within the Department of Defense.
Tuberville, in a statement, said the top three options for Space Command headquarters were all in Republican-leaning states — Alabama, Nebraska and Texas — and to pass them up “seems like blatant patronage policy.”
Formally created in August 2019, the command was temporarily based in Colorado, with Air Force and Space Force leaders initially recommending that it remain there. In the last days of his presidency, Donald Trump decided that he should be based in Huntsville.
The change prompted a number of revisions.
Advocates of keeping command in Colorado have argued that moving it to Huntsville and creating a new headquarters would slow its progress at a time when it needs to move quickly to position itself to match China’s military space rise. And Colorado Springs is also home to the Air Force Academy, which now graduates Guardians of the Space Force, and more than 24 military space missions, including three Space Force bases.
Officials also argued that any new headquarters in Alabama would not be completed until after 2030, forcing a lengthy transition.
Huntsville, however, scored higher than Colorado Springs in a Government Accountability Office assessment of potential locations and has long been home to some of the first missiles used in the nation’s space programs, including the Saturn V rocket. It is home to the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command.
According to the officials, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, who ordered his own review of the matter, favored Huntsville, while Dickinson was strongly in favor of staying where he was. Officials said Austin presented both options to Biden.
In a statement Monday, Kendall said the service will work to quickly implement Biden’s decision, adding that maintaining command in Colorado “will prevent any disruption to its operational ability.”
The decision was hailed as a victory by Colorado lawmakers and condemned in Alabama.
“We have known for two and a half years that any objective analysis of this grassroots decision would come to the same conclusion that we did, that Peterson Space Force Base is the best home for Space Command,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper, D -Colo. he said in a statement. “Most importantly, this decision firmly rejects the idea that politics, rather than national security, should determine decisions fundamental to our national security.”
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said the decision “restores the integrity of the Pentagon’s grassroots process and sends a strong message that national security and the readiness of our Armed Forces drive our military decisions.”
Meanwhile, Rogers vowed that his committee will continue to investigate the matter, calling it “deliberate taxpayer-funded manipulation of the recruitment process.” He added: “It is clear that far-left politics, not national security, was the driving force behind this decision.”
Alabama Republican Senator Katie Britt echoed his sentiment, saying it was irresponsible for Biden “to rip a military decision out of the hands of the Air Force in the name of partisan politics.” She said an Air Force evaluation of potential locations ranked Huntsville first, adding that the decision “should have stayed within the Air Force purview.”
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Associated Press writer Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama contributed to this report.
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