A congressional hearing today on the permanent future home of U.S. Space Command ended with a vow from powerful U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala) to see that “no funds are spent in Colorado” on a permanent headquarters there.

But Rogers faced a threat in return that workers staffing the command in Colorado “don’t want to move” to Alabama and won’t move if that is the final headquarters decision. That means finding replacements, and the two states’ representatives disagreed about the ease of that and potential effect on national security.

Rogers of Alabama, who is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and plays a leading part in drafting the military budget, called the hearing.

“A horrible process horribly messed up,” ranking Democratic Congressman Adam Smith summed up as it began. The hearing’s goal was to try to untangle a long saga involving whether the command should stay in Colorado, where it was started, or move to Huntsville, Ala., which topped the official ranking of competing headquarters’ sites ranking several places higher than Colorado.

Space Command leaders testified the command is staffed with 1,400 military and civilian employees operating now in Colorado Springs and poised to reach full operating capability this year.

“Let me be clear,” Rogers said in his prepared statement. “This is not, and never has been, about readiness.” Rogers quoted Gen. Chance Saltzman, the general with “day-to-day responsibility for readiness,” saying the permanent location of the headquarters “will not impact the readiness of the United States Space Force.”

“The people at Space Command don’t want to move,” ranking Democrat Smith said. “They’re in Colorado Springs. They’ve been there. They set it up and they don’t want to move. I don’t know exactly why. I don’t think it has much to do with preferring Colorado Springs over Huntsville, Ala. Moving is a pain and, if you don’t have to do it, you’d rather not.”

Smith called that a balancing factor in the decision process. “It’s cheaper in Alabama but the people want to stay in Colorado. Which one weighs more?”

Alabama’s ban on abortions and Alabama U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s freeze on military promotions over the Pentagon’s support of reproductive choice for enlisted personnel were both given as reasons for the reluctance to come South.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said the “disruption associated with moving the headquarters became a factor to consider. There would be some operational risk.”

President Biden making a final decision was the other major point of disagreement. Several members of the committee said they’d never seen a decision made like this, but others pointed out former President Trump says he made the decision to put the command in Alabama.

“We’ve made a political decision, not a competency decision,” Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell said. Sewell, a Democrat, offered strong support to her Republican colleagues on the committee while saying President Biden still has her support on other issues.

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo) said China’s “rapid growth in capabilities” meant, “We needed to accelerate and achieve Full Operating Capability. Moving would create risk.”

But U.S. Rep. Dale Strong (R-Huntsville) questioned Space Command commanding Gen. James Dickinson and Kendall about the exact state of readiness in Colorado. He asked if workers were in “trailers.” “Yes, mobile facilities” was the answer. Backup power? “Working on that.”