U.S. Rep. Dale Strong (R-Huntsville) responded to concerns from some officials in Colorado who are politically burned, and warning that the existing U.S. Space Command workforce won’t be willing to move to Alabama.
President Donald Trump announced from the Oval Office Tuesday that U.S. Space Command’s permanent headquarters will be located in Huntsville.
“Uprooting Space Command will weaken national security and readiness, waste taxpayer dollars, and inconvenience military families,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis wrote in a statement posted to X.
“In 2023, President Biden made the decision to keep Space Command in Colorado Springs to ensure our national security in the space domain and because U.S. Space Command was about to reach Full Operational Capability at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, which it did in December.”
Strong said the Yellowhammer State has plenty of people who will be willing and qualified to take the jobs those in Colorado don’t want — and that local, state and federal officials are fully prepared.
“And of course, they’re like, ‘Well, what if none move?’ I said, ‘Let me tell you something the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Auburn, Alabama, Georgia, tech, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State,” Strong said. “I’ll promise you, we’ll fill it with qualified people.’”
The congressman also discussed all the benefits this move will entail to the American taxpayer and national security.
“It came back and compared several metropolitan areas, and it showed to do it in Huntsville was $426 million more economical to do it,” Strong explained.
“That said, Huntsville has the workforce, the technology, the security and everything that it needed. And then you start looking at some of those that were competing for it, and it just absolutely blistered their communities, saying, ‘Look, this is not a good mix. This is not where this needs to go.’”
“And a lot of people just don’t want to look at that GAO report or that [Inspector General] investigation. But you think right when I hit the ground my first day here, I said, I want to do what’s right for national security and all everything pointed it kept coming back: ‘Huntsville. Huntsville. Huntsville.’”
Strong says the leaders in Colorado are just thinking about their personal politics instead of what’s best for the future of Space Command.
“They did these 21 categories on two different occasions,” he said.
“The IG ruled that it was fair, that it was legal, then they do it again, and here it goes again. They didn’t like that was done because it once again, pointed that Redstone Arsenal had the workforce, had the technology, had the everything you look for, the cost to construct, the cost to maintain, and they California or Colorado just didn’t like that either. But I’ll tell you this right here, everybody that was on the floor last night was coming up congratulating saying, Huntsville, it was the right decision. Let’s move on down the road and get this project rolling.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
