The Director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the USSTRATCOM Center for Combating WMD Kenneth A. Myers testified before members of Congress on Wednesday to lay out a FY 2017 budget request.
At a hearing held by the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, Myers was also instructed to provide examples of how the agency is successfully eliminating the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction. Myers appeared with two colleagues from the Pentagon, Dr. Arthur T. Hopkins, performing the duties for the assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs, and Dr. Wendin D. Smith, deputy assistant secretary of defense for countering weapons of mass destruction.
“Nearly every year since 2011, we have faced another WMD crisis,” Myers said. “These are not necessarily situations that can be easily budgeted or planned. In these cases, we are forced to surge our efforts and reprioritize resources from more steady-state types of activities.”
DTRA’s budget request for FY 2017 sits around $1.2 billion.
Myers added that the Joint Improvised Threat Defeat Agency (JIDA) is being brought under DTRA. The 2016 NDA directed that JIDA transition to a military department or existing agency.