Diary Prequel Package — page 66

Also, over next few days I appeared on CNBC, WTOP radio and NPR - "Talk of the Nation" Dec. 18, 2002 - Another exciting day at the White House. Clearly, Scooter Libby and the VP are in favor of pushing for the Vaccine Trust Fund. OMB and the WH economic advisors have a problem with the concept of a trust fund. As usual, Carol Kuntz has been very supportive. Was called down to a meeting at the WH with OMB people (Jim Capretta), the VP staff (Carol K., Seth Carus, Noreen Hynes), DHS people (Richard Falkenrath, et al), Kristen Silverberg, Ken Bernard, Stew Simonson, Phil Russell, Bill Raub. We had to discuss the vaccine research plan. Again, must concern as to why we need a trust fund instead of an appropriation. I explained that one (the fund) is mandatory and the other (appropriation) is discretionary. Jim Capretta came up with the idea of a "Permanent and Definite Appropriation" that would be mandatory and multiyear. In the middle of the meeting, Scooter Libby called me on my cell phone and said that he was going into a meeting with the VP and the President at 1:00 PM (it was now 11:30 AM) and he needed for me to write a 1⁄2 pager on the concept of a mandatory fund for vaccine (he said trust fund, but we subsequently hashed out a Perm. And Def. Appr. He also wanted a microbe by microbe breakdown with time-lines and costs - all by 12:55 PM. In addition, he wanted me to meet with the CEOs of "Big Pharma" to determine if they would support this. I rushed to the DHHS with Stew, Kerry Weems, Phil Russell and Bill Raub and put together a great package to e-mail and FAX to the VP's office (Carol K.) arriving a few minutes before 1:00 PM. They loved it. We will wait to see what happens. Dec. 19-22, 2002 - Still much activity with the VP continuing to push to help us get a Permanent and Definite Appropriation for purchase of countermeasures, particularly, but not exclusively for vaccines. There is much concern about botulism and acquiring botulism anti-toxin. Many phone calls and meeting with Stewart Simonson with whom I now speak with and/or meet at least several times per day. Carol Kuntz and Noreen Hynes are trying to help us. They asked us to put together a programatic assessment of our procurement needs for countermeasures without consideration of budget constraints. We had previously put together a $4.2 billion package concentrated mostly on MVA and rPA (anthrax) with only about $450 million over 10 years for other countermeasures. We presented this several days ago to OMB people in the presence of Kristen Silverberg (see above). OMB was miffed that they had not seen these numbers before, when in fact the numbers were contained in our budget submission for '04, but were not specifically designated as purchase. Clearly OMB is resisting the VP's attempts to get this fund through. The new "no budget constraint" package that we put together was approximately $15.0 billion over 3 years (FY04 - 06) with considerable amount now to other countermeasures such as botulism, plague, Ebola, tularemia, Rift Valley Fever, EEE/VEE/WEE, Staph. Enterotoxin, antibiotic resistance, pandemic flu, WNV, etc. Even though this was put together by Phil Russell with help from DMID, the VP wants me to defend it to OMB since they are cashing in on my reputation and scientific credibility. The VP has set up a meeting for Dec. 23 at the WH with himself and Scooter Libby teleconferenced from Jackson Hole and me, Mitch Daniels, Nancy Dorm (OMB Deputy Director), Tommy Thompson, the VP's staff, etc. (see below).