A senior House Republican is calling North Korea’s first test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile an “alarming development.”

In a statement Tuesday, Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas says Congress and the Trump administration need “to take forceful, swift steps to see that the U.S. and our allies are protected.”

Thornberry is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. He says he’s grown increasingly concerned that North Korea is acting with a greater sense of urgency than the United States is.

His remarks came after he and other lawmakers received a classified briefing on the pace of North Korea’s ICBM development. Pyongyang conducted on July 4 an unprecedented test of a missile capable of hitting the U.S.

Thornberry is pushing for a $2.5 billion increase to the Pentagon’s missile defense budget.

(AP)