Powerful Senate Democrats are backing Colorado Sen. Michael Bennett’s demand that the Biden administration review the Trump administration’s decision to locate Space Command headquarters at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville. Congressman Mo Brooks, R-Alabama, said recently that any non-partisan review will show that the decision to local Space Command in Huntsville “was clearly in the long-term best interest of national security.”
“Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett advised me on January 13 that she decided to locate Space Command H.Q. at Redstone Arsenal based solely on qualitative (Redstone Arsenal ranked “high”) and quantitative (Redstone Arsenal ranked #1) factors,” Brooks said. Barrett emphasized her decision was clearly in the long-term best interest of national security.”
Brooks was confident that the decision will be upheld in a fair review as long as political partisanship was not involved with the review.
“As I stated during a House Armed Services Committee, Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing recently, I welcome an investigation concerning the location of Space Command H.Q,” Brooks added. “If the investigation honestly portrays the Tennessee Valley’s strengths, Redstone Arsenal will do just fine. My only reservation is whether hyper-partisanship will blind the investigation to the merits of the Air Force’s decision. If hyper-partisanship rules as it did under the Obama-Biden Administration, Alabama and other red states will not fare well on Space Command H.Q. or any other major federal issue.”
Congresswoman Terri Sewell, D-Selma, also said that there is no better place in the country for Space Command than Huntsville.
“There is no place in the country better situated to be the home of the U.S. Space Command headquarters than the Rocket City,” Sewell told APR. “I believe that any review will show that Alabama was selected because its existing aerospace infrastructure, national security presence, and skilled workforce make it the ideal location to house the headquarters.”
The head of the Senate’s Intelligence Committee, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, is the latest lawmaker to join Bennett’s call for the Biden administration to review the decision to move U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado to Alabama.
Huntsville is the home of the Army’s Redstone Arsenal, the Missile Defense Agency, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, and numerous defense and aerospace contractors so is a national hub for space-related research and development efforts.
Bennet represents Colorado. Colorado Springs competed hard with Huntsville to be the headquarters for Space Force and all the jobs that will bring to the area that ultimately gets to be the permanent home of the command. Bennett is now angry that his state lost the competition to Alabama.
Brooks is in his sixth term representing Alabama’s 5th Congressional District. Brooks has recently announced that he is a 2022 candidate for U.S. Senate. Sewell is in her sixth term representing Alabama’s 7th Congressional District.
