Senators question pulling Space Command from Colorado Springs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Colorado’s U.S. senators were joined by colleagues from New Mexico, Nebraska and California in a letter to Pentagon investigators that questions the Trump administration’s decision to uproot U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs.

The letter to Defense Department Acting Inspector General Sean O’Donnell questions whether the process was thorough and fair.

A top question for Colorado Democratic U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper centers on how the Pentagon scuttled an earlier endeavor to pick a home for the command and its 1,400 troops, relying on a new process that came about amid growing political pressure.

“Following the relocation announcement in January, Bennet and Hickenlooper denounced the decision and expressed concern that the Trump White House injected politics into the process,” the offices of Hickenlooper and Bennet said in a news release. “Later that month, Bennet, Hickenlooper and the entire Colorado congressional delegation urged President Joe Biden to suspend the Trump administration’s decision to move U.S. Space Command.”

At the center of concern are reports that President Donald Trump picked Huntsville, Alabama, for the headquarters, countermanding Pentagon

advisers who wanted to leave it in Colorado.

By enlisting powerful lawmakers including California Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Nebraska Republican U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, the letter could turn up pressure on the Pentagon and White House to revisit the Huntsville decision.

The Government Accountability Office and the Pentagon are probing the decision, including the role politics may have played in it.

Lawmakers including Colorado Springs U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn have said those investigations could lead to a wider ranging probe by congressional committees.

Colorado has been the hub for military satellite operations since the 1980s and housed the first iteration of U.S. Space Command before it was shuttered in 2002 amid postCold War belt-tightening. The latest version of the command was created in 2018, and the military picked Colorado Springs as its interim home.

Last May, the Pentagon said the command would remain here until at least 2026.