“Nothing in this subtitle, or the amendments made by this subtitle, shall be construed to authorize or require the relocation of any facility, infrastructure, or military installation of the Air Force,” the bill says in bureaucratic language that means space things in Colorado Springs stay in Colorado Springs.

Whether U.S. Space Command will stay in Colorado Springs isn’t settled by the bill, but its provisions narrow the chances that another state, like Alabama, could grab it, Lamborn said.

The bill also all but names the first head of the Space Force: Air Force Space Command and U.S. Space Command boss Gen. Jay Raymond.

Raymond gets a nod in the bill’s language, which says the Air Force Space Command leader will be the Space Force chief of staff.

While the Space Force’s general gets a seat on the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the measure establishes little in the way of Pentagon management structure for the new service.

The Space Force, with 15,000 troops, will fall under the Air Force, with an assistant secretary at the Pentagon to represent the new service. Space troops will also get a new acquisition office to buy satellites, rockets and other products.

And the new Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy will push space issues at the top of the Pentagon’s bureaucracy.

All of the changes in the defense policy bill, however, will have to wait for a new Pentagon budget. The Pentagon has operated on temporary budget bills that don’t include cash for a Space Force.

Lamborn said getting the policy bill passed builds momentum for a budget accord. And the partisan wars may have a ceasefire when it comes to military issues.

“When it comes to national defense, we have a lot of common ground,” Lamborn said.