AL House Reps draft bill blocking infrastructure funding for temporary Space Command headquarters in Colorado

WASHINGTON (WAFF) - U.S. Representatives from Alabama are making new efforts to block the growth of the temporary Space Command Headquarters in Colorado Springs.

The bipartisan group of lawmakers from Alabama submitted a draft House bill late last week that would block funding for the continued growth of the temporary headquarters in Colorado, according to documents reviewed by NBC News.

This is because Huntsville is still in the running to become the home of the agency. Sources told NBC that the DoD may back out of a deal with Huntsville because of the state’s abortion laws.

Two congressional officials told NBC News the bill would prohibit leaders at the temporary headquarters from spending money on constructing, leasing or modernizing facilities until the secretary of the Air Force formally selects and publicly announces the location of its permanent headquarters, which the Trump administration said would be in Huntsville, Alabama.

Since announcing in January 2021 that the headquarters would be in Huntsville, there has been a series of reviews and investigations of what has become a fraught, politically contentious process.

Alabama lawmakers are concerned that the Biden administration and the Air Force have slowed the process with the goal of building a fully operational headquarters in Colorado and then arguing that a move would result in a pause in Space Command operations.

Colorado Representative Doug Lamborn is all for the headquarters going to Colorado Springs.

“U.S. Space Command is months away from full operational capability (FOC) at Peterson Space Force Base,” he wrote. “We cannot afford a self-imposed delay in FOC given the threats posed by China and Russia.”

He says if Huntsville is picked, it will set the agency back at least four years.

Read the full story from NBC News here.

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