Diary Prequel Package — page 70

he dY Jan. 26, 2003 - Peter M. arrives from Uganda and Mark Dybul and I prep him for the White House visit. We have late lunch-early dinner at Mark;s house to brief Peter. SuperBowl Sunday. Jan 27, 2003 - We (Peter and I) meet with Mitch Daniels. Mitch seems genuinely moved by Peter's description of AIDS in Africa and is very deferential to Peter and me. Gary and Jay ask that I plan to spend the entire day at the White House on Tuesday, the day of the State of the Union Address. Something is up, not sure. They even suggest that Peter might join a group of VIPs in a satellite site (i.e. White House or EEOB) to watch the SOTU address. Jan. 28, 2003 - One of the most amazing and important days of my life! Spent the entire day (11 hours) at the White House. I arrive at the White House and Gary Edson and Jay Lefkowitz inform me that the President has decided to adopt our AIDS Implementation plan - the full version!!! $15 billion over 5 years starting with $2 billion in FY2004. $10 billion will be entirely new money including $1 billion to the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria. Peter Mugyenyi will sit next to Laura Bush in her box at the Capitol for the speech. I spend the whole day at the WH proofing the SOTU, fact checking, preparing and proofing Qs and As with Jay and Gary. The WH personnel are all congratulating me for pulling this off. Josh Bolten told me that I am his hero; Karl Rove and Andy Card are generously congratulatory towards me. Gary, Jay, Kristen, Josh, et al ask me to stay at the WH to have pizza with them and watch the SOTU address. I had to leave at 7:00 PM to prepare for my Senate Hearing on Smallpox the next day. The SOTU was fabulous. He rolled out BOTH Project BioShield and the AIDS initiative - 2 things conceived of and planned by me (with obvious help from many, particularly with BioShield). This has truly been an historic day! Jan. 29, 2003 - Testified to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing chaired by Arlen Specter. Also present were Sens. Harkin and Murray Hearing on Smallpox vaccination plan. Julie Gerberding and I testified. Concern on the part of local health officials and hospital people that the USG plan does not provide for compensation to people injured by receiving the vaccine. Hearing went quite well. Spent the rest of the day at the WH doing post SOTU briefings and handling press calls. I used Jay Lefkowitz's office. We sent off Peter back to Uganda. At the end of the day, I briefed Ari Fleischer for 1 hour on Project Bioshield. Jan. 30, 2003 - Testified at the Senate HELP (Health Education Labor and Pensions) Subcommittee Hearing with Julie Gerberding again on the subject of smallpox vaccine plan. Issue of compensation came up again. At the Hearing was Sens. Judd Gregg, Bill Frist, Alan Reed, Barbara Mikulski, Hiliary Clinton. Hearing went well. Spent rest of day at the Department are downtown doing Congressional Briefing to HELP committee on Project BioShield and to Secr. Thompson on Smallpox. Did the CNN Wolf Blitzer show with Secr. Thompson, Julie G., Mark McClellan (FDA) and Jerry Hauer on the subject of the HHS Biodefense Command Center.