DALEVILLE — The Alabama congressional delegation and House Republicans will attempt to block funding from going to any permanent Space Command headquarters facility in Colorado, according to U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise).
President Joe Biden announced in late July he was reversing a decision by former President Donald Trump to bring Space Force headquarters to Huntsville. Instead, if Biden has his way, the facility and jobs will remain in Colorado.
Moore told attendees at a congressional luncheon hosted by the Alabama League of Municipalities on Tuesday that Huntsville came in first in a selection process on where the new facility would be located, but "during the last election there started to be this rumbling that they were going to leave it in Colorado."
"We're just not going to fund permanent structures for Colorado. We had a call about this yesterday in the delegation," Moore said. "Chairman (U.S. Rep. Mike) Rogers was flying out to Colorado. He's going to tour all those rented buildings where the General thinks they're going to leave it in. We're just not going to let them gradually build a permanent structure in Colorado for Space Force. We're just not going to do it. Since they've made it a political issue now they've picked a fight with the wrong people, and we're just not going to go away quietly. Alabama is not going to go away quietly."
Moore said in an interview with 1819 News, "It's more than just political, it's about national security so we're having to get in the fight."
"Alabama won hands down. I think that the Biden administration is trying to make it political but since we have the power of the purse strings we're going to hold them accountable. We're going to say, 'We're not going to do that.' Alabama won. We're going to hold their feet to the fire on funding," Moore said.
He continued, "The General told us in a meeting, 'Once I get a permanent structure somewhere, I can get out of these leases in Colorado.'"
"These buildings he rented to set it up, I think we can force them over time to say, 'Hey, we are not going to fund a permanent structure.' If they really want to be mission ready and they want to follow what the best guidelines are then they need to come to Alabama," Moore said. "So, I don't know what the timeline looks like on that but they may have some leases right now but there is not going to be permanent construction. We're not funding permanent construction."
Congress is also set to consider a variety of spending bills when they come back from August recess in the fall.
Moore said he wanted Congress to return to federal spending levels before COVID arrived in 2020.
"I think we've got to go back to pre-COVID levels without any tricks, without any behind-the-scenes deals. We want to make sure that we go back to pre-COVID levels. We don't fund the 87,000 IRS agents. We want to make sure too that we're not funding transgender surgeries in our military. We're not paying for abortion travel. Coach (Tuberville) has been holding the line on that in the Senate as far as promotions, but we need to hold the line from the House and say, 'Hey, we're not going to fund this stuff, man.' Not only that, we don't need to be spending like COVID is out there because we saw what that spending did," Moore said. "We're honestly in some pretty perilous waters on spending. We're spending percentages of GDP that we spent on World War II. We can't sustain that. It impacts us geopolitically too as the U.S. dollar gets weaker and weaker which we just saw the downgrade on the credit. Then you've got BRICS out there rearing their ugly head wanting to trade on commodities and gold so it could be a huge negative impact on the U.S. dollar if they go away from it as a world reserve currency so we've got to get a handle on spending. We've got to get back to pre-COVID levels and show people that we're just not willing to just continue to spend and spend and spend to a deficit level that is just unsustainable."
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email caleb.taylor@1819News.com.
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