Rep. Mike Rogers: Space Force ‘is going to become a reality by the end of this year’

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February 5, 2019

In an appearance on Huntsville radio’s WVNN on Monday, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Saks) predicted the much-anticipated Space Force would become a reality by the end of 2019.

Proposals have the Space Force functioning as an independently operating branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, and according to reports, it would be modeled on the Marine Corps, which is overseen and funded by the Department of the Navy. Space Force, however, would fall under the purview of the Air Force.

Rogers said he expected Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan, currently the acting secretary, would brief both chambers of Congress in the near future.

“I think it is going to be a big topic this year,” Rogers said on “The Jeff Poor Show.” “It looks like the Pentagon is ready to present their package of a statutory wish list to the House Armed Services committee. My understanding is the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the acting secretary, Shanahan is going to brief the Senate leadership at the end of this week, and the House leadership next week on what he’s about to unveil.”

“So, I think you’ll see – and it’s getting bipartisan support, just like when we passed it last year out of the House. I think it’s going to become a reality by the end of this year. I think statutes will be in place to complete the separation. They’re already starting that right now with some of the existing powers they have in the Pentagon. But it looks like it is going to happen.”

That bipartisan support is spearheaded by Rogers and his House Strategic Forces subcommittee counterpart Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN).

“It’s my proposal,” Rogers added. “It came out of a subcommittee I was chairing on the Armed Services Committee. It’s the subcommittee called Strategic Forces. It was my proposal initially, me and Jim Cooper, who at the time was the ranking member on my subcommittee. We were vocal advocates of this for more than a year before it was actually passed out of the House last year. He has taken over the chairmanship of that subcommittee, with the Democrats being in charge. I’m still on it, and we will be leading the charge on the House side again this time.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University, the editor of Breitbart TV and host of “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN in Huntsville.