During impeachment proceedings
In the spring of 1998, Mr. Clinton read a potboiler about a mad scientist who unleashed a bioweapon on the Northeast. This led the president to discover that Washington stockpiled drugs and vaccines for military use in pandemics, but not for civilians.
By that October, as Washington was consumed with impeachment efforts, Mr. Clinton shoehorned $51 million into an omnibus spending bill to establish the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile, or NPS, a repository for drugs and vaccines at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for civilian use during pandemics. It was a modest beginning, but the decision to accumulate medicines for the public to use was important.
From Karl Rove op-ed
https://www.wsj.com/articles/clinton-and-bush-prepared-for-pandemics-11586387379 (subscription)
====
Did not bother to read the whole op-ed titled: Clinton and Bush Prepared for Pandemics, only the above caught my eye.
= new reply since forum marked as read
