Colorado lawmakers are leading 85 members of Congress in a push to oppose a Department of Defense bill to move space-focused Air National Guard units into the active-duty Space Force. 

The space-focused units work in specialized areas, such as electromagnetic warfare, but can also hold civilian jobs and help out during local emergencies as traditional guardsmen. When Former Donald Trump created the Space Force the units were orphaned in the Air National Guard, which is no longer responsible for training and equipping them. 

Colorado lawmakers have pushed for Congress to create a Space National Guard for the units to remain in place, while the Air Force would like to make the guardsmen part-time members of an active-duty force, a model no other military branch has adopted.   

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Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Rep. Jason Crow, D-Aurora, are among those leading the opposition to a Department of Defense proposal that would transfer the National Guard units into active duty without the blessing of the governors in the states where they serve, according to a news release. In the letter Crow penned, lawmakers called on the House Armed Services Committee to reject the proposal saying it negates federal law around a governor’s authority over their guard units. 

“Congress has a duty to maintain the integrity and longstanding tradition of the National Guard and a proposal of this magnitude threatens to undo over 120 years of precedent,” the letter states. 

Well-known Republicans and Democrats, such as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, signed the letter. It also gained support from House Armed Services Committee members, such as Don Bacon, R-Nebraska, and Salud Carbajal, D-California. 

Rep. Doug Lamborn, Colorado’s only member on the House Armed Services Committee, did not sign the letter. 

Governors of 48 states push back on DOD plan for space Air National Guard units

In an emailed statement, he said he was looking forward to reading and digesting a recently completed study from the Air Force examining the options for a Space National Guard, integrating guardsmen into the active duty and leaving the units in place within the Air National Guard. 

“Nevertheless, actions that erode the Governor’s powers over their State’s National Guard is an understandable concern I share. I believe the Governors have a right to a voice. The Administration should listen to these concerns, address them, and do what is best for National Security,” he said. 

Governors from all 50 states oppose the DOD’s proposal to move the 14 national guard units, including seven in Colorado, into active-duty service. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott joined their colleagues in recent days, making the opposition unanimous. 

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox appeared together during a press conference Monday where they said the measure could set a precedent of federalizing National Guard units. 

Polis said maintaining the units in the National Guard was a matter of national security because if the DOD forces the space-focused units to transfer into the active duty between 70% to 86% of the guardsmen across all seven states said in a survey they would quit. 

“We would lose them to their careers, to their lives,” Polis said. 

During a roundtable Friday, space-focused national guardsmen said they wouldn’t want to leave their home states to serve in the active duty and they appreciated involvement in their local communities. 

The 233rd Space Group in Greeley, a group focused on missile warning, has worked on every state-level mission, such as the response to COVID-19 since 2000, Polis said. 

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall responded to the governors’ concerns Friday, Cox said, but it didn’t address the root of the issue. Kendall told them the effect would be negligible, Cox said. 

“If it truly is negligible, they should have no problem dropping it,” Cox said

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