March 31, 20021 - Washington - Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) joined Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper (both D-Colo.) and a bipartisan group of their Senate colleagues to send a letter to the Department of Defense (DoD) Inspector General (IG) outlining recommendations to include in the investigation of the decision to move Space Command from Colorado Springs, Colorado to Huntsville, Alabama.   

In addition to Feinstein, Bennet and Hickenlooper, the letter was also signed by Senators Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.). 

In 2019, the Air Force selected Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as a finalist for the permanent location of Space Command. Following Vandenberg’s removal from the finalists list, Senator Feinstein and Representative Salud Carbajal sent this letter to the Secretary of the Air Force. 

The text of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Mr. O’Donnell: 

We write to request you consider the following subjects in your ongoing investigation into the Trump administration’s U.S. Space Command basing decision on January 13, 2021. 

As you conduct your investigation, we ask that you address the following questions, in addition to the subjects named in the investigation announcement: 

• Why did the Department of Defense end the Strategic Basing Process in 2019 and subsequently create and use a new and untested process for the subsequent evaluation in 2020? 
• How did the Department of Defense establish the baseline building and command requirements for the 2020 process? 
• Did the Department of Defense consider each of the sites’ existing infrastructure in evaluating costs?
• Did the Department of Defense data sets provide a consistent, objective, and fair representation of each site’s qualities and conditions?

Thank you for your consideration on this important subject.  

Sincerely, 
Senator Dianne Feinstein