Congressional Delegation News:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) are requesting that the Biden administration conduct a comprehensive review of the Air Force’s decision in the final days of the Trump administration to host the U.S. Space Command headquarters in Huntsville, Ala. – over several final contenders including Albuquerque.
In a letter to President Joe Biden, the lawmakers express concerns that the Air Force’s selection process raises serious questions of political impropriety and demonstrates clear violations of the Air Force’s own standardized process for selecting locations to host organizations of this size.
The lawmakers wrote, “We believe New Mexico is uniquely positioned to support Space Command’s mission and that a close review of the merits of the January 13, 2021 decision will warrant reconsideration.”
In May 2020, the Air Force announced an open bidding process wherein communities from around the country were welcomed to self-nominate to host the Space Command headquarters. The New Mexico delegation welcomed the Air Force’s decision to widen the candidate search.
Albuquerque presents a unique opportunity for Space Command to build a headquarters while also leveraging existing organizations like the Space Capabilities Office and the Space Vehicles Directorate along with a robust national lab infrastructure and a thriving private sector space economy.
“The Air Force’s subsequent process was severely flawed and not in line with the more deliberate approach the service has taken in the past with regard to basing decisions of this magnitude. More specifically, we are concerned that the Air Force circumvented its own Strategic Basing Process (SBP), the objective and reproducible approach the service has used to manage significant basing decisions in the past,” the lawmakers wrote.
Senators Heinrich and Luján and Rep. Leger Fernández also point to the concerning speed of the basing decision that took place in the final days of the Trump administration, less than a week after the Air Force evaluated Albuquerque’s candidacy.
The lawmakers concluded, “We ask that your administration suspend all efforts to plan and execute the standup of the new headquarters while a thorough review of the Trump Administration’s decision is being conducted.”
Read the full text of the letter here.