The House Armed Services Committee is launching an investigation into the delay around a decision on a permanent home for Space Command and changes to the requirements for a future headquarters.
The permanent home of Space Command, currently in Colorado Springs, has been a contested issue for two years since President Donald Trump announced it would move from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama in January 2021. Since then Colorado lawmakers have advocated for retaining Space Command in Colorado Springs, where many other Space Force guardians work and would remain if Space Command moved.
In a letter sent Thursday, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Alabama, said he was alarmed that fundamental changes had occurred to Space Commands mission and headquarters requirements, according to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. The secretary told Rogers and other members of the Alabama delegation about these changes in a recent meeting and stated he would launch his own investigation as well, according to the letter.
The Department of Defense proposed a new headquarters facility for Space Command that could house approximately 1,800, including contractors in 464,000 square feet of office space, according to the Environmental Assessment. Currently, Space Command is housed in existing office space at Peterson Space Force Base. In those offices, 1,200 people from all services, protect an area 100 kilometers above the Earth to the edges of the universe, Space Command Gen. James Dickinson said previously.
The requirements for a new headquarters have changed within the Department of Defense, the letter stated.
"These apparently sweeping unilateral changes to policies and posture seem to have been made with zero civilian oversight at the Department of Defense," the letter states. "Secretary Kendall also stated that he was unaware who, if anyone, at the Department of Defense approved expenditures of taxpayer funds to unilaterally change the mission or headquarters requirements of SPACECOM."
The letter called on Space Command to stop any "scheme to alter the mission or headquarters requirements."
It also asked Kendall and Gen. James Dickinson, head of Space Command, to provide documents related to changes to mission or headquarters requirements and documents related to updating repairing or modernizing the temporary headquarters since Jan. 2021, among other documentation.
The letter calling into question changes to headquarters requirements followed a May 19 letter by Rogers expressing concern that a decision over a permanent headquarters had been delayed two years. The letter said the delay was politically motivated by Biden appointees, citing a news story by NBC.
Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper hit back saying that Trump's decision was politically motivated. Trump said in during a 2021 interview with an Alabama-based radio show that he single-handedly picked Huntsville.
“Facts are facts: Space Command is very nearly at (full operational capability) in Colorado. Moving it to Alabama now would be based solely on politics,” Hickenlooper said in a written statement.
Space Command expects to reach full operational capability by the end of the summer and that could be a factor in the final basing decision, said Congressman Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, in a statement.
"I have continually asked the Air Force to make full operational capability, or FOC, the highest priority for the sake of national defense. If this can be achieved fastest and best by repurposing existing infrastructure at Peterson Space Force Base, this would serve our country best," he said.
He noted that Kendall told him the Air Force is repurposing infrastructure in Colorado Springs.
An aide for Sen. Michael Bennet's office said that the overall case for keeping the command in town has not changed.
“Our case has not changed: this decision needs to be rooted in what's best for our national security,” the aide said.
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