Biological weapons are back in Russia. Congress must pay attention, correct America’s biological preparedness shortcomings, and act to stave off this threat to the nation.

This month’s plague outbreak, a disease that killed millions in centuries past, is not merely a historical curiosity nor a naturally occurring phenomena. Russia’s outbreak, originating at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia, stems almost entirely from their research into offensive biological weapons. This same Russian facility today also works to research and weaponize anthrax, brucellosis, cholera and other deadly agents that pose material threats to the United States.

A $350 million computing initiative and a military-wide cryptographic transition serve different purposes. Both must be measured against the mission, not the milestone.

The Pentagon is putting money behind tomorrow’s quantum computers while racing to protect today’s military networks from what sufficiently advanced quantum computers could eventually do to them. Those efforts are technically different. This week, they arrived in the headlines almost together.