Updated, 4:31 p.m.
With President-elect Donald Trump soon to take office, the fight over the permanent headquarters for Space Command appears to have new life.
On Monday, Nov. 11, Republican Alabama Congressman, Mike Rogers, told a radio talk show in his home state that he expects President-elect Donald Trump to order Space Command to begin relocating from Colorado Springs to Huntsville as soon as he takes office.
“I told everybody… that Colorado Springs will not be the future location of Space Command,” Rep. Rogers told the hosts. “It will be Huntsville, Alabama who won fair and square and President Trump said in the campaign that he was going to reverse that decision if elected.”
The congressman's statements have reignited a debate between the two states vying for the Space Command’s permanent location — a debate that has spanned multiple years.
The Space Command was first established in Colorado in 1985 but disbanded in 2002, following the Sept. 11 attacks, so the U.S. could focus on homeland security. Trump reestablished Space Command in 2019, with Colorado Springs as its temporary headquarters.
After a drawn out process to select a permanent home, the Trump administration settled on Huntsville days before he left office. Two and a half years into his term, President Biden announced it would instead stay in Colorado.
Last year, Rep. Rogers stated that he would leverage Congress’s funding to block resources from establishing permanent headquarters in Colorado Springs — aiming to pressure the Pentagon to revert to former President Trump’s original plan of placing the headquarters in his home state.
Last year’s Defense Authorization Act restricts funding for the Space Command’s headquarters until the Department of Defense Inspector General and the U.S. Comptroller review the selection process.
“I think you'll see in the first week that [Trump] is in office, he'll sign an executive order reversing Biden's directive and we will start construction next year in Huntsville,” Rep. Rogers said on Monday.
The Alabama Congressman’s remarks were met with whole-hearted pushback from Colorado elected officials. El Paso County’s newly elected congressman Jeff Crank is one of those who oppose the prospect.
Despite being a vocal supporter of the president-elect's views in general, Crank said in a statement to CPR News that he plans to “work with our Colorado congressional delegation to protect our military assets,” when he is sworn into office in January.
"Americans want a strong military and national security, and that’s why they overwhelmingly elected Donald Trump as our next President,” Rep. Crank. “To maintain operational readiness, U.S. Space Command headquarters should remain at Peterson Space Force Base.”
Colorado Springs mayor Yemi Mobolade also emphasized the fact that Space Command has reached full readiness here in Colorado.
The Command’s “efforts and excellence are bolstered by the more than 150 aerospace and defense companies in our city, our highly skilled workforce and leading technology and resources,” Mobolade said in a statement. “This robust ecosystem is a key factor in the early success of USSPACECOM, and we are committed to working together to support its mission to defend our great nation.”
Similarly, Larkin Parker, a spokesperson for Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, told CPR News that the senator would fight “for the nearly 58,000 members of Colorado's military community and the 340,000 veterans who call our state home.”
“Colorado is the rightful home for Space Command,” Parker said in a statement. “Our state’s space and military assets are critical to America's national security, and Colorado is the best place for our service members and their families to train, live, work, and retire.”
In a statement, Sen. John Hickenlooper said that Colorado Springs is the best place for Space Command , in part, because it's already doing work in the city.
"U.S. Space Command is at full operational capability and has been for nearly a year," Hickenlooper said. "Alabama couldn’t win this fight on the merits so they’re trying to get Trump to overrule our national security and cost taxpayers an enormous amount for the sake of a hometown win."
