Space Command's departure from Colorado will cost the state hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars
President Trump announced Tuesday he is moving U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama.
"They fought very hard to get it and it's an honor to give it to Huntsville," Trump said in announcing the move, which caps a four-year turf war between Alabama and Colorado.
The President signed an executive order in 2018 re-establishing Space Force. It became a standalone command in 2019, and Colorado Springs was named the temporary home.
In January of 2021 -- in his final days in office -- Trump announced Alabama would be the new home. But in 2023, President Joe Biden reversed that decision.
Gov. Jared Polis says Space Command became fully operational in December.
According to the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, it employs about 1,400 people and has a billion dollar economic impact in the State.
The governor and Colorado's Congressional Delegation say moving the headquarters weakens national security and wastes taxpayer dollars. But the Air Force, which chose Alabama as the preferred location in 2021, projected it would cost $429 million less to build Space Command in Alabama as opposed to Colorado.
J. J. Ament, the President and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, says the loss of the military headquarters is a wakeup call.
"I don't think it's elections, but I do think cost of living, cost of housing, cost of doing business are things that we should be very vigilant about because we do compete in a market. And those other states would love to have not just Space Command, they'd love to have any number of Colorado companies relocate," Ament said.
While space command is a big loss, Ament says, Colorado is still a leader in aerospace. He says the state is home to 2 thousand aerospace companies that support 280,000 direct and indirect jobs and, he says Colorado received $48 billion in federal contracts last year alone.
But state policies, he says, are taking a toll on the state's economy.
"We have to make sure Colorado stays competitive -- whether it's the command or a headquarters for space -- or whether it's the headquarter for a private sector company."
Ament says many of the aerospace companies that are located here also have operations in Alabama, so he doesn't expect a big exodus.
President Trump insists the move will make the country safer but also noted Alabama voted for him, "We love Alabama. I only won it by about 47 points."
His decision was influenced not only by the outcome of the election but the way Colorado conducts elections, "The problem I have with Colorado, one of the big problems, they do mail-in voting. They went to all mail-in voting so they have automatically crooked elections, and we can't have that."
Colorado's Congressional Delegation is unified in its opposition to the President's decision and says it will continue to fight to reverse it.
