The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee has stooped to burdening military personnel in his attempt to move Space Command from Colorado Springs to his home state of Alabama.

Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers, R-Alabama, abused his chairmanship in May by suggesting Space Command cease any progress until moved to Alabama. This advice, while potentially helpful to Rogers' Alabama approval numbers, flies against the best interests of our country's national defense. Space Command is in a race to keep up with foreign aggressors and has no time to spare.

That was last month. On Tuesday, Americans learned Rogers used his chairmanship to block a routine request from the Department of Defense to reallocate funds. Rogers reportedly blocked the funds as part of his quest to move Space Command.

Because Rogers won't release the funds, the Air Force is suspending reenlistment bonuses and putting some base reassignments on hold. If this continues, we'll see other ramifications throughout the military.

It is a sad day when the chairman of Armed Services imposes harm on our military so he can win acclaim in Sweet Home Alabama. As chairman of Armed Services, Rogers should hold the safety and security of all 50 states as his highest value.

If national security were the chairman's highest cause, he would never consider harming military recruitment by denying signing bonus funds. He would do nothing to interfere with the critical work at Space Command or any part of our military establishment. He would never play games with our military assets.

In holding up the funds, Rogers brought out some of the best in our own Sen. John Hickenlooper.

"Chairman Mike Rogers' decision to block the Department of Defense from routinely reallocating funds is dangerous and harmful," Hickenlooper wrote in a statement. "The Alabama delegation is holding our military service members hostage. They are risking our national security to get what they want."

He continued: "This is not how our nation should make basing decisions. Period. It is, however, how you penalize our troops for the sake of narrow political interests," Hickenlooper wrote.

Well stated, senator. Alabama should not hold our military hostage to commandeer a new command. Rogers should stop abusing the military to benefit his home state. And, of course, this is not how we should make basing decisions.

Basing decisions must reflect the best interests of national security. With that as the highest order of business, one cannot make a case for moving Space Command to an army base in Alabama. The command resides at Peterson Space Force Base in the same community as the United States Air Force Academy, Space Force and too many other major aerospace assets to list.

China, North Korea and Russia are all in a race to militarily dominate space. Each would be delighted to see Space Command packing boxes, moving desks and traversing the country to start all over with the disruptions of colleagues who would not relocate and the burdens of learning new terrain.

Moving Space Command was a bad call by former President Donald Trump. Voters ousted him in 2020, meaning they no longer wanted him as their Commander-in-Chief. Instead, they wanted President Joe Biden to command the military.

Here we are, more than three years past Trump's dangerous call, and Space Command remains in limbo. Meanwhile, we have Rogers ready and willing to torture our military if it doesn't go his way.

President Biden could and should put a stop to this before things get more out of hand. He need only reverse a bad call by the man he replaced at the will of the public.

REPRINTED FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE

Photo credit: NASA at Unsplash