How resources are allocated within a program signal a great deal about priorities. In the wake of the bombings of the World Trade Center and the Murrah Federal Building in the United States and that sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, both the executive and legislative branches of government focused considerable attention on preventing and responding to a WMD terrorist attack. In the context of a federal budget that exceeds a trillion dollars, a …showed first 75 words of 307 total…

…showed last 75 words of 307 total…use of WMD. Even if the chances of terrorist use of WMD are extremely low, the consequences of such an attack may result on a scale hard to imagine. Understandably, executive and legislative branch activities seem designed to meet the threat forcefully enough to address genuine needs and send a signal to the American people and the world that the US government is taking action to thwart the WMD terrorism problem should it present itself.