While the state is facing a tight budget in the upcoming year, Attorney General Phil Weiser is requesting more than $1 million to fight the Trump administration on various legal fronts and prepare for a potential battle to keep Space Command in Colorado.

Weiser said the state will need to hire more attorneys for the battles.

Weiser is referring to the possibility that President Donald Trump would try and move Space Command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama.

In January, Weiser wrote to the Joint Budget Committee (JBC), asking for about $1.2 million in general fund dollars over two years to hire up to six more lawyers. The funds would help the Department of Law defend the state in lawsuits both brought about by the federal government, as well pursue legal action against the federal government for “unlawful federal actions” that, he said, could harm the state.

However, the state’s Joint Budget Committee struggled to approve the funds, as the budget faces a $1.2 billion general fund deficit.

There is an alternative, as presented by Weiser’s department last week, to tap an existing cash fund designated for “unanticipated legal needs,” funded by attorney’s fees received through litigation and which typically supports prosecutions in which the attorney general is selected by the governor to act as the state’s prosecutor.

There’s enough in the fund to cover that first-year tranche of $600,000, but there’s a wrinkle there, too. The department will need continuous spending authority if it encounters anticipated legal needs, including criminal prosecutions.

JBC staffers rejected that alternative idea.

The committee approved the general fund request late on Friday. 

Kurt Morrison, the legislative liaison for the department, told the JBC on March 13 that the request comes from a “greater knowledge” of the legal challenges that will arise from the Trump administration. The department is seeing a 20% to 25% increase in legal actions, Morrison told the committee, primarily due to the volume of litigation that Weiser has taken since January 20. That includes the eight new lawsuits, eight amicus briefs and three intervening cases that need new defendants to keep the lawsuits going. 

He said the bigger part of the workload is the legal counsel needed for state agencies. Morrison explained that the federal landscape is changing almost daily. He said the magnitude is beyond anything the office has ever expected.

The department has reviewed about 100 executive orders, with a handful of “particular focus” containing penalties for parties, such as state agencies and public colleges and universities, that could lose federal funding if they don’t comply with the orders.

The Trump administration has directed agency heads to review federal spending withhold funds from programs officials believe to be anathema to its priorities. In particular, the administration is targeting “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs. Additionally, Trump officials have argued that there is bloat, fraud and waste in federal government and adopted a strategy of shrinking it. 

Several of Trump’s orders are tied up in litigation.        

Morrison indicated that the department hears almost daily from state agencies, and it involves areas of law the department hasn’t had to deal with before.

Sen. Judy Amabile, D-Boulder, asked: What’s the return on this investment?

Morrison couldn’t provide an exact figure but said that in one lawsuit, currently under a preliminary injunction, the federal Office of Management and Budget froze 2,600 federal programs. Should that freeze go through, he said, the impact could be in hundreds of millions of dollars.

He said a team of 30 lawyers in the department is working on these lawsuits in addition to the 40 to 50 hours a week they were already working. The request is a “modest investment” in the level of work, he said. 

Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, rebuffed the request, noting that the Attorney General’s office is normally funded by the agencies charged for those services. She also noted that the department had been seeking a 5.5% increase for its 2025-26 budget.

Morrison countered that lawsuits aren’t always brought on behalf of the agencies. For example, he said, the lawsuit over birthright citizenship doesn’t have a state department that would be its client — and that the client is the state of Colorado in that case.

As for Space Command, while it wasn’t directly mentioned by name, Morrison said there is likely litigation coming at Colorado or emanating from Colorado in which no other states are plaintiffs of defendants.

He said that could be tied to federal grant decisions or “individual military facilities moving out of the state,” a veiled reference to Space Command. Those are lawsuits in which Colorado would be the only defendant or plaintiff, he said.

Alabama officials have expressed confidence the Space Command is heading to their state. Such a move could have a $1 billion economic impact in Colorado Springs.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-AL, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, told Alabama Daily News in January it will happen, based on comments from the President.

“Whether it’s this month or this week or next week or this month or next month, it’s going to happen, and I’m absolutely certain of that,” Rogers said.

Space Command headquarters employs about 1,700 people across the military branches in Colorado Springs who protect and defend space assets. It also helps support an ecosystem of more than 150 aerospace and defense companies.

The fight over Space Command dates back to Trump’s first administration, when he decided to move it to Huntsville in his last week in office.

In 2023, President Joe Biden reversed that decision.

Moving Space Command could cost $1.2 billion and take years to complete.

Reporter Mary Shinn contributed to this report.