A House proposal to create a Space Corps in the Air Force moved forward Wednesday despite an effort by some members of the Armed Services Committee to study the issue instead.
Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, dropped his amendment challenging the Space Corps, and it remained a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act during the bill’s markup session.
Supporters on the committee said a new command is needed to organize national security operations in space. However, Air Force leaders opposed the move this month, and some House Armed Services members questioned whether a decision on the new service would be too hasty during the bill’s markup session.
“This is the first time I’ve heard about a major reorganization of our Air Force and Department of Defense,” said Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., a former Air Force officer. “Something this significant, if we are at that point in our committee, that we would have hearings or discussions at the full committee.”
Top Pentagon officials should be called to the Hill to testify on the proposed changes before any votes are taken to approve it, McSally said.
The Space Corps plan had momentarily been under threat by an opposing NDAA amendment by Turner that called for an interim report by the defense secretary weighing the strategic need of the space service, but Turner decided to withdraw his legislation during the debate.
The original NDAA language, added by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., the strategic forces subcommittee chairman, would create the Space Corps to handle the Air Force’s current responsibilities outside the atmosphere as well as create a unified space command under U.S. Strategic Command.
Rogers’ subcommittee found that space operations are suffering under a “crippling organizational and management structure.”
“Space is a critical part of our lives and a critical part of the military,” Rogers said. “Unfortunately, the Air Force and its organizational bureaucracy has not been able to fix the problems that exist in space.”
Last week, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said she was opposed to the reorganization proposed by the House subcommittee, saying it would make the service “more complex, add more boxes to the organization chart and cost more money.”
