WASHINGTON The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee on Thursday said he has requested a formal investigation of the decision to keep the headquarters of the U.S. military's Space Command in Colorado rather than move it to Alabama.

In a letter to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican from Alabama, asked for a Government Accountability Office investigation, citing "concerns raised that untoward political interference played a major role" in the decision by President Joe Biden.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision. The White House has denied that partisan motivations were behind the decision.

The U.S. military announced on July 31 that Biden, a Democrat, had selected Colorado Springs as the permanent location of the U.S. Space Command headquarters, saying it would ensure "peak readiness" of the command during a critical period.

Biden's decision came as a Republican senator from Alabama, Tommy Tuberville, is blocking hundreds of U.S. military appointments to protest the Pentagon's policy reimbursing costs for service members who travel to get an abortion.

Space Command is responsible for American military operations in space.

Tuberville has said that Biden's decision "looks like blatant patronage politics."

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Mark Porter)