Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) vowed to escalate his monthslong feud with the White House following President Joe Biden's decision to keep Space Command's headquarters in Colorado rather than permanently move it to Alabama.
Tuberville has been embroiled in conflict with the Biden administration for months over his hold on senior military promotions in protest of the Pentagon’s abortion policy. The move has blocked the nominations of nearly 300 general and flag officers over the policy, which pays for the travel costs and time off of service members who must travel out of state to receive an abortion due to restrictive laws.
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National Security Council officials denied that the military holds played any role in the president choosing Colorado over Alabama. The Air Force recommended the Army's Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, as the preferred location for SPACECOM's permanent base at the end of former President Donald Trump's term. That recommendation was based on a Pentagon analysis of locations in 24 states based on criteria such as infrastructure, costs, mission capability, and the quality of the local community.
That analysis, which was defended in a Defense Department inspector general report last May, ranked Redstone as the best location.
Gen. James Dickinson, the head of Space Command, urged Biden to keep everything in Colorado because moving would jeopardize military readiness, according to a senior administration official. U.S. Space Command headquarters will achieve “full operational capability” in the coming weeks while moving it to Alabama would result in its opening in the early to mid-2030s, which Biden determined to be an “unacceptable” risk, the official added.
Colorado officials and lawmakers alike were keen to keep the base where it is, as were the state's governor and two senators, all of whom are Democrats. The three have made similar arguments as the White House, regularly noting it would take less time to get the temporary base to full capacity than moving to Huntsville. They vowed when the Pentagon announced the decision in January 2021 to lobby the incoming Biden administration to reverse course.
Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) cheered Biden's Monday decision, while Tuberville and Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) accused the president of "playing politics" with an act of retribution that affects national security.
Tuberville also vowed to keep fighting to get SPACECOM moved to his home state, though he has yet to offer specifics on the next steps. A Tuberville spokeswoman did not have further updates when reached by the Washington Examiner beyond his Monday statement on the matter, in which he said, "This is absolutely not over. I will continue to fight this as long as it takes to bring Space Command where it would be best served — Huntsville, Alabama."
The Alabama senator has shown the same commitment to his Pentagon abortion fight, which has gone on since February and has no resolution in sight. The Defense Department enacted the rule Tuberville is protesting last year in response to the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed nationwide abortion access for nearly half a century.
DOD nominees who require Senate confirmation are typically approved in batches, usually without objection, to avoid a severely prolonged process. While Tuberville lacks the power permanently to block the nominees, he can significantly delay their confirmations. The first-term senator has vowed to continue his effort until the Pentagon reverses its policy, sparking bipartisan concern over the implications of leaving so many high-level positions unfilled.
Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has distanced himself from Tuberville's actions, telling reporters in May, "I don’t support putting a hold on military nominations. I don’t support that."
Biden and administration officials have lambasted the Tuberville blockade as detrimental to military readiness and overall national security, something the Alabama Republican noted while criticizing the president's SPACECOM decision.
"The Biden administration has been talking a lot about readiness over the past few months, but no administration has done more to damage our military readiness in my lifetime," Tuberville said in his Monday statement.
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"They’ve politicized our military, destroyed our recruiting, misused our tax dollars for their extremist social agenda, and now, they are putting Space Command headquarters in a location that didn’t even make the top three," he continued. "They are doing this at a time when space is only becoming more important for national security."
Mike Brest contributed to this report.