On March 11, 2003 Project BioShield bill was introduced to US congress, Dr Fauci testified on April 4, 2003 and the legislation became public law July 21, 2004. [Curiously 2020 pandemic was declared exactly 17 years later on March 11!]
The Project BioShield Act of 2003 was established “to help incentivize private industry to develop vitally needed medical countermeasures by providing multi-year funding to support advanced research, clinical development, manufacture and procurement” othewise to “speed production of vaccines and other countermeasures in case of biological or other terrorist attacks.”
The federal bioterrorism budget went from [about] $305 million in 2001 to $3.8 billion for 2004, down from $5.9 billion in 2003. HHS staff assigned to bioterrorism increased from 212 in 2001, to 1,700 in 2004. [1]