Defense One:
Pentagon leaders wanted U.S. Space Command, a new joint combatant command for space warfighting, up and running by the end of 2018. Two full months into 2019, Congress has yet to repeal a law that is preventing the command’s creation, according to defense and Trump administration officials.
Here’s the problem. In the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, lawmakers ordered U.S. Space Command to be subordinate to U.S. Strategic Command, the same way U.S. Cyber Command started out under STRATCOM. But the administration wants Space Command to begin its organizational life as an independent unified command.
“The President has sent a legislative proposal…to the Congress to eliminate that requirement and allow for the moving forward with the unified combatant command,” a senior administration official said last week.
On Jan. 8, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan asked for a “prompt repeal” of the law in a letter to Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
