OPENING REMARKS OF CHAIRWOMAN STEFANIK

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Chairwoman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, made the following remarks, as prepared for delivery, on the Subcommittee's hearing titled “Department of Defense (DoD) Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Policy and Programs for Fiscal Year 2019.” For testimony and to watch the hearing click here.  

"Welcome everyone to today’s hearing on the Department of Defense’s policy and programs for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction for Fiscal Year 2019. 

Almost one year ago, we met to discuss this same topic amidst news of Syria’s repeated use of chemical agents, and North Korea’s advancements in nuclear weapons, as well as their asymmetric use of a nerve agent for political assassination. 

In the year between, reports have surfaced of North Korea’s biological weapons program, and their regular transfer of chemical weapons technology to Syria. We have also seen Russia’s attempted use of a military-grade nerve agent in support of their ongoing political assassination campaigns.
 
Needless to say, a lot has happened in a year.  

The pursuit and potential use of weapons of mass destruction remains a high consequence threat to our national security. Thankfully, we have not seen any use domestically. But, we must not take this for granted.  

As the past few years have shown, the use of WMD is unfortunately becoming more and more common-place. Low barriers, and in some cases, no barriers to entry, should force us to continually review and evaluate our programs, policies, and activities designed to counter and mitigate these threats across the WMD spectrum, from State and non-state actors alike. 

From an adversarial standpoint, I am particularly concerned about advancements being made in the areas of synthetic biology and biotechnology. China and Russia continue to pursue gene editing and unique approaches to biotechnology that should give us all tremendous pause. With respect to non-state threats, some analysts say that the potential for a single, undetected terrorist group to develop and deploy first-seen engineered pathogens has never been higher. 

And as this subcommittee has discussed before, synthetic biology and gene editing, when combined with high-performance computing and access to large-scale genetic data-sets, has the potential to redefine biological threats as we know them today. 

With all of this in mind, we can understand the importance of today’s event. 

We have before us four distinguished witnesses:  

• Mr. Ken Rapuano, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense & Global Security

• Mr. Guy Roberts, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs

• Mr. Vayl Oxford, Director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency

And

• Lieutenant General Joseph Osterman, Deputy Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command

Thank you again to our witnesses for being here."