President Obama’s budget shortchanges American missile defenses and threatens to further undermine the nation’s military strength, said Congressman Mike Rogers (R-AL,) Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, today at a Congressional hearing to evaluate the Administration’s budget request for Missile Defense for fiscal year 2015.

Rogers, a firm supporter of the nation’s missile defense forces, strongly disagrees with the president’s proposal. The main focuses of the hearing were missile defense programs of the Missile Defense Agency, which is headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama.

During his opening statement Rogers stated that “missile defense has been at the center of this Administration’s catastrophic failure known as the Reset with Russia.”

Rogers went on stress his opposition to the president’s missile defense funding proposal. He also questioned Vice Admiral James D. Syring, Director of the Missile Defense Agency, stating “I am concerned by Russia’s behavior threatening our allies, including the illegal invasion of Ukraine and its violation of the INF treaty. Are you?”

“The President will propose the policies he wants, but ultimately Congress holds the purse strings. As Chairman of this subcommittee, I want to make clear that I will oppose this proposal,” Rogers said, adding “the present trajectory is all too reminiscent to me of earlier eras of failed leadership and retrenchment.”

-###-