FBI Director Christopher Wray has committed to further growth at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, U.S. Sen. Katie Britt said Wednesday. Wray told a Senate hearing that the FBI is “on track” to increase staffing from 1,800 employees now to “about 3,000″ employees.

The testimony came during a hearing of the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee on which Britt sits. It was in response to her questions about the bureau’s commitment to Redstone growth.

Federal funding for ongoing construction at the FBI campus on Redstone has already exceeded $3 billion.

“I’ve been to visit there, as you said, many times,” Wray told Britt, “and I’m sure I will visit many more and every time I’m struck by the buzz and hum of the activity and frankly how excited and enthusiastic all of our people and our partners are there.”

Wray called the center “an innovation hub” for the bureau and said he expects “our sort of graduate level training to be at Redstone” while basic training for all new agents and analysts remains in Quantico, Va. FBI research and development to counter “our adversaries use of technology and our need to use technology to be ahead of them … would be really concentrated in Huntsville,” Wray said.

Wray said the bureau also plans to grow its counter-IED (improvised explosive device) training already at Redstone.

Britt urged Wray to “leverage Huntsville’s highly skilled workforce and vast national security industrial base, where it is network engineering, quantum computing, artificial intelligence or counter UAS. “Huntsville has the experience and stands ready to support the FBI’s mission,” Britt said.