GAO to review decision to move Space Command to Alabama

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is opening a review into the Trump administration’s decision to move U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado Springs to Alabama. 

Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), who had asked the GAO to open a probe, said in a press release that the agency had informed him of the upcoming review.

“I am very pleased that the Government Accountability Office is conducting an investigation of the methodology behind the headquarters selection process for U.S. Space Command,” Lamborn said.

“I believe the process the Department of the Air Force used was fundamentally flawed,” he said. “It is crucial we thoroughly review their entire process to ensure that the decision was both sound and rooted in our national security interests.”

Lamborn added, “This kind of review is precisely what GAO excels at, and I am confident they will investigate in a transparent, nonpartisan, and unbiased manner. I will continue working to ensure that USSPACECOM is headquartered at a location which strengthens and does not disrupt our national security space enterprise.” 

The Hill has reached out to GAO for comment.

The Air Force first decided in mid-January to establish the permanent headquarters of U.S. Space Command in Huntsville, Ala. 

U.S. Space Command was established in December 2019 as the military’s 11th unified combatant command. Its command’s predecessor, Air Force Space Command, was headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, a city that was seen at the time as the front-runner in the race to host the new headquarters.

Colorado lawmakers banded together to reverse the decision by the Trump administration to stand up the Space Command in Alabama, sending a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in February pressing him to review the decision before moving forward.

“Without a review, this hasty decision will undermine our country’s ability to respond to national security threats in space. We have concerns about the transparency, impartiality, and bias of the process that the previous administration used when coming to a final decision that should be addressed prior to any final decision on permanent basing,” they wrote in Feb. 1 letter.

Lamborn had separately asked GAO to conduct a review.