Tuberville promises to continue battling Biden’s Space Command decision: ‘It’s far from finished.’
Sen. Tommy Tuberville Slams Biden’s Decision to Keep U.S. Space Command in Colorado
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) strongly criticized President Joe Biden’s choice to keep the U.S. Space Command headquarters in Colorado instead of relocating it to Alabama. Tuberville accused the current administration of injecting politics into the decision-making process.
The U.S. Space Command, a joint command separate from the U.S. Space Force military branch, is currently based in Colorado Springs. Towards the end of former President Donald Trump’s term, the Air Force recommended moving the headquarters to Huntsville, Alabama.
Tuberville’s Statement
“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 — not because the facts had changed, but because the political party of the sitting president had changed,” Tuberville stated on Monday evening.
“The top three choices for Space Command headquarters were all in red states — Alabama, Nebraska, and Texas. Colorado didn’t even come close. 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,” Tuberville added.
Biden and Senate Democrats have been engaged in a prolonged dispute with Tuberville, who has placed a hold on military nominations and promotions to protest the Pentagon’s policy of reimbursing travel expenses related to abortions. Concerns have been raised that these holds could eventually impact military readiness, a point Tuberville emphasized in response to the decision.
“The Biden administration has been talking a lot about readiness over the past few months, but no administration has done more to damage our military readiness in my lifetime,” Tuberville asserted. ”They’ve politicized our military, destroyed our recruiting, misused our tax dollars for their extremist social agenda, and now they are putting Space Command headquarters in a location that didn’t even make the top three. They are doing this at a time when space is only becoming more important for national security.”
“The senior senator from Alabama who claims to support our troops is now blocking more than 300 military operations with his extreme political agenda,” Biden responded last week, taking a jab at Tuberville’s background as a football coach.
According to a senior administration official, Gen. James Dickinson, the head of Space Command, convinced Biden to keep everything in Colorado due to concerns that moving would jeopardize military readiness. The U.S. Space Command headquarters will achieve “full operational capability” in the coming weeks, while relocating it to Alabama would result in its opening in the early to mid-2030s, which Biden deemed an “unacceptable” risk.
Lawmakers from both Alabama and Colorado have been vying for their state to become the permanent base. Colorado lawmakers argue that it would take less time to bring the temporary base to full capacity compared to moving to Huntsville and establishing the base there. On the other hand, Alabama politicians reference the department’s initial decision and a subsequent review of the process. Tuberville, who advocated for the move to Huntsville, is infuriated by the change.
The Alabama senator has pledged to continue his efforts to bring Space Command to Huntsville, although it remains uncertain what further actions he can take to influence the decision.
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