At midnight on April 1, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency disappeared.
The 38-year-old, 250-employee agency was officially swallowed by the State Department at that time as part of the foreign affairs reorganization that Congress approved last year.
"There was, as you would expect in any organization, considerable unhappiness at the conclusion that ACDA would be merged into the State Department," said John D. Holum, ACDA's director, at a press briefing on Wednesday. "At the same time, there has been unqualified support for the efforts to make it work in the most effective possible way, and I think that's due to the commitment to the mission of this agency that ACDA's professionals and all of its personnel maintain."
Holum will remain in the administration as acting undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs.
ACDA had four bureaus. At State, those four bureaus and one existing bureau at State will be consolidated into three bureaus: a Nonproliferation Bureau, an Arms Control Bureau, and a Political-Military Affairs Bureau.
To complete the reorganization, the U.S. Information Agency will merge with State on Oct. 1. The U.S. Agency for International Development will remain an independent agency, but the AID director will report directly to the Secretary of State.
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