President Donald Trump on March 13 tossed out the idea of a "space force" while speaking with Marines in San Diego, but the idea for a separate branch of the military had already been floating around for some time.
"[This] is not a new thing,” Stuart Witt, an aerospace executive and a member of White House’s National Space Council Users Advisory Group, told The Los Angeles Times. “The president just acted upon it.”
Initially, a group of former and current government officials, including some with financial ties to the aerospace industry, had been pushing the idea since 2016, as they see a new military force as a way to boost Pentagon spending.
Many senior senators and high-ranking Pentagon officials oppose the idea of a space force, but a few days after the president spoke in San Diego, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Alabama, called him at his Mar-a-Lago resort to discuss the idea.
The administration will send a proposal to Capitol Hill next year, according to Vice President Mike Pence, in hopes of getting legislation passed to start the space force by 2020.
Rogers and Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., who also backs a separate service, last summer included an amendment in the annual defense policy to create a service they dubbed the "space corps." The division would pe part of the Air Force, according to the proposal, but Rogers was concerned that including it in that branch would not work.
He also said defense contractors with involvement in space were complaining that it was difficult to deal with the Air Force.
According to the LA Times, quoting the campaign database Open Secrets, defense firms have contributed nearly $400,000 to Rogers' campaign committee and leadership PAC since 2017, and are his largest donor.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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