A single line often inverts meaning once you see what it
answers, so neighbouring messages are always shown.
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Nov. 1, 2001 - Had extraordinary briefing of Democratic Senate Caucus on bioterrorism. Present among others were Sens. Lieberman, Daschle, Boxer, Mikulski, Cleland, Hollings, Wellstone, Jeffords, Biden, Wydan, Levin, etc. In all there were about 30 senators. They were extraordinarily complimentary to me for my public leadership on bioterrorism, calling me an "American hero", a national treasure, etc. I thoroughly briefed them. They felt strongly that I should lead the nation's efforts. I politely suggested that I prefer my present job.
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Nov. 2, 2001 - Important Senate Hearing of the Labor, HHS Subcommittee chaired by Tom Harkin. Also present were Sens. Spector, Byrd, and Stevens. Hearing on smallpox. I was able to communicate to Specter that NIAID was not allowed to put in a request in the $1.6 billion supplement of DHHS for bioterrorism. In other words we needed $153.7 million additional to the PB, but we were not allowed to submit for the supplement by OMB. I "busted" the budget by telling Specter after the Hearing what we needed. He promised to put it into our appropriation.
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Nov. 3, 2001 - There was a spoof on me and Attorney General Aschroft on "Saturday Night Live". No new cases of anthrax. Kathy Nguyen case in NYC still a mystery.
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Nov. 4, 2001 - I appear on "Face the Nation" with Sen. Ted Kennedy and others; also on CSPAN's Washington Journal and CNN Special. No new issues.
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2001-11-05 00:00
Anthony S. Fauci
Nov. 5-12, 2001 - relatively quiet re: bioterrorism. No new cases.
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Nov. 9, 2001 - Still no information on why the WH ordered me to recall my Op-Ed. Have e-mailed Gayle Smith (NSS). I will explain situation to her tomorrow and see if she has any insight. Meeting did not occur at 8:30 AM because of scheduling issues. Will try to do a call tomorrow Nov.10, 2011 - Got some insight from Gayle, but am afraid she is not telling me everything. She claims that she heard discussion about my Op-Ed at the WH, but not by WHCOMS. Issue was whether it was a good idea to put it out right after HRC's speech since it already got great PR and so why waste a Fauci Op-ED. Perhaps better to wait until the POTUS does World AIDS Day. This could be true, but who knows? Gayle did say that the OMB people might have been concerned by the couple of words that said we need significant increases in resources, including from other donor countries. This implies needing more USG resources, which would obviously bother OMB. However, I could easily have changed this to say we need significant new resources FROM other donor countries. In any event, Gayle assured me that the Op-Ed was not "off message" in the substance of its content. We will hold onto it for now. Having said this, here is another example of the ridiculous need to control the "message" on the part of this White House. AIDS Conference Back to the Raj Shah intrigue. On Raj's suggestion, Yesterday's scheduled meeting now a phone call among me, Eric, Raj, Tom Frieden. Raj wanted to again bring up the possibility of doing something "big" since he feels that the POTUS will not have another opportunity. After much discussion we explained to Raj again that "Blue Sky", i.e. $2.5 billion will never get by OMB or the Congress and even so, the best way forward according to the models is not to just pick out a few countries and full-court-press. Raj goes along and we think it is over. Apparently, immediately after the call, Raj calls Rick Klausner asking him to convince me to not give in and adopt his plan. Rick calls me on my way to The Inn at Little Washington for my delayed 70th birthday present from Denise from last December. We are in the limo (rented by Denise) and Rick tries to convince me to re-convene the group. He says that Raj feels that I am the only one who could do this. Raj just does not want to give up. However, out of want to go the extra mile, I will call up Eric and Tom.
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Nov. 13, 2001 - Went to an extraordinary dinner at the home of the Saudi Ambassador to the USA (Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz) Sat at table with his wife Princess Haifa Al Faisal (Late King Faisal's daughter). Also at the table was CIA Director George Tenet and Sen. Ted Stevens. Dinner in honor of Nelson Mandela. The Princess specifically mentioned me as a very honored guest when she introduced the program. Nov. 13- Dec.1, 2001 - At first no connection with spores in mail However, careful detective work has indicated that this might be a tertiary mail contamination that gave inhalational anthrax, which is not supposed to happen. Letter that passed through Trenton with the Leahy letter got contaminated and went to a post office in CT. may have gotten a letter that was next to the secondary contaminated letter. Check news stories for details. I appeared an Magazine choses in virtually every newspaper and TV with statements. Washingtonian Magazine choses me as one of Washington's "Best and Brightest" - Dec, 2001 issue. Secretary Thompson told me that over the past week and 1⁄2 he has spoken to Pres. Bush about appointing me Director, NIH. Apparently, there is some resistance by Sen. Brownback who is a born-again Christian and right winger. He is pushing Bob Redfield and other strict conservatives. Apparently, he believes that I am too liberal because of my association with gays in the AIDS work and because of my statements about the scientific need for embryonic stem cell research. Thompson re-iterates my conditions for taking the job. Science advisor Jack Marburger is against my doing dual job. On Nov. 27 and 29 I appeared before 2 Senate committees. On Nov. 29, I testified that we needed $200 Million (professional judgment) more than the PB. Jeff Koplan (CDC Director) testified with me that CDC needed an additional $2 Billion for bioterrorism research. We both made big NY Times and Washington Post coverage. My picture in NY Times on Nov. 30. Weekend of Dec. 1 & 2 - Thompson asked me to prepare talking points for him in his visit to the Pres. To argue against reneging on the promise to give NIH $4 Billion in FY2003 to complete the doubling trajectory.
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Dec. 4, 2001 - Probably one of the most significant days for NIH and me regarding the budget of the institution. Word was that the "pass back" for NIH would be $0.5 billion, which would be devastating for NIH (no new initiatives and $275 shortfall on Type 5s). I entered into intensive negiations with Tommy Thompson over a 2-3 hour period in his office during which time he frequently called the White House discussing our negotiations. The bottom line is that Tommy and the President wanted to give the NIH a pass back that I would be able to publicly defend to the constituents, the Press, and the Congress. I laid down some strict conditions of this support. It was $2.0 billion for NIH excluding bioterrorism. I calculated that it would take $1.3 billion to reach current services, $200 million for maintenance of campus (including security). This would leave about $500 for new initiatives. On top of that I needed 1.0 billion for bioterrorism. They wanted to know my opinion of whether the constituents would accept this "almost" meeting the doubling trajectory. I told Tommy to tell the President that I would definitely defend this pass back since it actually was a great deal given the constraints on budget due to the demands of the war and the bioterrorism (BT) defense. I gave him my word that I would support him and the President. Tommy also informed me that a few people in OMB were very pissed off at me because I testified at the 2 Senate Hearings (especially the Specter Appropriations Hearing) that we needed $200 million more in FY2002 for BT. He also re-affirmed that Sen. Brownback was not in favor of my nomination for NIH Director because he felt that I was too liberal and he wanted his candidate who is Bob Redfield, a born-again Christian. Tommy said that the President wanted me , but was getting pressure from the far right. I am perfectly comfortable with this situation. I am what I am. Take me or leave me. I am happy with what I am doing now.
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Dec. 7, 2001 - Negotiated with Ed Sontag (Asst Secr. For Management at DHHS) regarding restructuring and consolidation of the NIH from an administrative standpoint, i.e. Budget, HR, Legislation, Procurement, Public Affairs, Grants Management, IT, etc. I had an agreement with Tommy Thompson that Budget should be sacrosanct and should stay in the ICDs as opposed to consolidating at the level of NIH. Ruth Kirschstein (Acting Director, NIH) almost gave away the farm in the negotiations. I stepped in and took over the meeting for NIH. Ruth was about to agree to give up 850 FTEs. I insisted that we could not cut down by any more than 200. Sontag came down to 275; we agreed upon 250. Also, Sontag was concerned that the new Clinical Research Center was projected to be $142 million over. Ed asked how we were going to handle it and Ruth said that this did not happen on her watch and that it was someone else's fault at NIH and she would see that this person (Steve Ficca) would be held responsible (?fired). She gave no indication how she would handle the real problem except to say that she would take it out of the IRP. I insisted that we would need major flexibility from the Department regarding how we could make up this money and that we could not hurt the IRP so abruptly and severely. Sontag agreed to help. Poor Ruth is in way over her head. I will have to make some difficult decisions if I become NIH Director about keeping her on as Deputy. I may need to appoint another Deputy and have her keep her title, but not her responsibilities.