Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy
Considering Existing Stockpiles and Reserves
In the past , the United States maintained modest stockpiles of materials and resources necessary to its defense . For example , in 1917 , it was recognized that “ certain minerals of great importance , particularly in war time ” were lacking and that a stockpile of those important minerals would enhance the nation ’ s defense ( National Research Council , 2008 , 133-34 ). During World War II , the United States created its first strategic stockpile through the 1939 Strategic Materials Act , “ which authorized $ 100 million for the Secretaries of War and the Navy acting jointly with the Secretary of the Interior and in conjunction with the Army and Navy Munitions Board to purchase strategic raw materials for a stockpile .” In the intervening years , the United States maintained a variety of stockpiles of critical materials , with the efforts reorganized as the threats facing the nation evolved . Currently , the two most well-known stockpiles maintained in the United States are the Strategic National Stockpile and the Strategic National Petroleum Reserve .
The Strategic National Stockpile
Initially created as the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile by Presidential Decision Directive 62 ( Federation of American Scientists , n . d .), Congress appropriated funds to the CDC in 1998 ( U . S . Department of Health and Human Services , n . d .) to prepare against bioterrorism events like anthrax and smallpox . It was renamed the Strategic National Stockpile ( SNS ) in 2003 following the terrorist attacks of September 11 , 2001 ( Public Health Emergency , n . d .). President Bill Clinton ’ s motivation for establishing the SNS has been attributed to a work of fiction — Richard Preston ’ s The Cobra Event , a novel centered around a novel virus called Cobra manufactured by a terrorist organization and deployed in New York City ( Waxman 2020 ). At the time , the nation ’ s stockpiles were reserved for the military and there was not a comparable stockpile to provide aid to civilians should a bioterrorism event occur .
While the SNS was envisioned as a response to bioterrorism events , the mission of the stockpile has expanded over the years to include natural disasters and emerging infectious disease threats like the Zika virus in 2015 . Much of the stockpile contains materials necessary for a wide range of disasters , including gloves and antibiotics , as well as recently developed vaccines to potential bioterror agents like anthrax . The goals of the SNS have remained the same . It is designed to be deployed to disaster areas within 12 hours of the declaration of the disaster . As part of the Cities Readiness Initiative , 72 cities and metropolitan areas regularly practice distribution of standardized packages of supplies from the SNS ( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , n . d . a ). During the COVID-19 response , the Trump Administration disputed this long-held premise of the stockpile ’ s design to support states , localities , and tribes during an emergency — claiming that the SNS was for federal purposes only ( Blake 2020 ). This claim , and widespread reports of
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