Alabama’s two U.S. senators called President Biden irresponsible today for a “shameful” decision to leave U.S. Space Command Headquarters in Colorado and not move it to Huntsville, Ala., which ranked first in an official Pentagon review of possible headquarters sites.
“President Biden has irresponsibly decided to yank a military decision out of the Air Force’s hands in the name of partisan politics,” said U.S. Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) “Huntsville finished first in both the Air Force’s Evaluation Phase and Selection Phase, leaving no doubt that the Air Force’s decision to choose Redstone as the preferred basing location was correct purely on the merits.”
“As soon as Joe Biden took office, he paused movement on that decision and inserted politics into what had been a fair and objective competition,” U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said, “not because the facts had changed, but because the political party of the sitting president had changed.”
Tuberville called it “shameful” that Biden’s administration waited until “Congress had gone into recess and already passed next year’s defense budget before announcing this decision.”
“That decision should have remained in the Air Force’s purview,” Britt said. “Instead, President Biden is now trying to hand the Gold Medal to the fifth-place finisher. The president’s blatant prioritization of partisan political considerations at the expense of our national security, military modernization, and force readiness is a disservice and a dishonor to his oath of office as our nation’s Commander-in-Chief.
“Locating the permanent Space Command Headquarters on Redstone Arsenal undoubtedly remains in the best national security interest of the United States,” Britt said. “President Biden should allow the Air Force to proceed with doing its job. Alabama’s world-class aerospace and defense workforce, capabilities, and synergies stand ready to fulfill the mission and strengthen our national security long into the future.”
Tuberville said the top three choices for Space Command headquarters in the Pentagon site selection process were all in red states: Alabama, Nebraska and Texas. “Colorado didn’t even come close,” Tuberville said. “This decision to bypass the three most qualified sites 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.”
“There remain serious questions as to whether the Air Force illegally used taxpayer dollars to upgrade facilities in Colorado Springs,” Tuberville said. “I hope that House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers will continue his investigation into that matter.” Rogers, a Republican, is a congressman from Alabama.
“This is absolutely not over,” Tuberville said. “I will continue to fight this as long as it takes to bring Space Command where it would be best served – Huntsville, Alabama.”
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