President Joe Biden is directly responsible for keeping the U.S. Space Command in Colorado, picking it over Alabama after the Pentagon presented him with the two options.
Two anonymous officials informed Politico of Biden's involvement in Monday's decision.
They said Biden sided with Gen. James H. Dickinson, who pushed to keep it at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, over Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, who wanted to move it to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.
While the Trump administration previously signed off on moving the headquarters to Huntsville, Biden directed a review of the decision after taking office and gave Kendall authority to make the decision.
But the eventual conclusion by Kendall split with Dickinson, who heads the command, and led to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin bringing it before the president without a recommendation for either site.
It comes despite the defense secretary publicly backing the Huntsville plan months prior.
Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, press secretary of the Department of Defense, said Monday that the eventual decision was based on an "objective and deliberate process informed by data and analysis."
Republican lawmakers in Alabama have accused the Biden administration of picking Colorado over Alabama for political reasons, a claim that National Security Council spokesman John Kirby denied Tuesday.
"Let me put this as plainly as I can. The deciding factor for President Biden in deciding to keep Space Command in Colorado Springs was operational readiness. Pure and simple," Kirby claimed.
"It had everything to do with making sure that Space Command could, in an undisrupted way, continue to operate at peak readiness levels in what is one of the most critical domains across the spectrum of military domains," he added.
Meanwhile, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., praised the move, contending that it "sends a strong message that national security and the readiness of our Armed Forces drive our military decisions."
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