[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 271 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 271


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 2, 2003

          Received; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
 Congratulating Fort Detrick, Maryland, on 60 years of service to the 
                                Nation.

Whereas April 10, 2003, was the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Army 
        installation in Frederick, Maryland, named Fort Detrick;
Whereas Fort Detrick is designated as an Army Medical Installation and is home 
        to the United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command 
        (USAMRMC), one of two campuses of the National Cancer Institute (NCI-

Frederick), and 36 other organizations of the Department of Defense and 
other Federal departments;

Whereas the primary missions of the organizations at Fort Detrick include 
        biomedical research and development, medical materiel management, and 
        global telecommunications;
Whereas throughout that installation's 60-year history, the personnel and 
        organizations assigned to that installation have contributed scientific 
        breakthroughs and medical solutions for the Armed Forces and the Nation;
Whereas Fort Detrick is a focal point for the Nation's biomedical scientific 
        leadership and has contributed extensively to protecting and improving 
        public health in the United States;
Whereas Fort Detrick has been home to preeminent researchers in bacteriology, 
        microbiology, clinical and preventative medicine, biochemistry, 
        neurology, botany, virology, and genomics;
Whereas the research program at Fort Detrick was a pioneer in the laboratory 
        facility designs, equipment, and procedures that are used for infectious 
        disease research in laboratories worldwide;
Whereas researchers at Fort Detrick have improved public health throughout the 
        world through the creation of botulinum antibodies, which have been used 
        to treat both infant and adult victims of botulism;
Whereas the Venezuelan equine encephalitis vaccines, which were created at Fort 
        Detrick, have been used to control human and animal outbreaks of 
        Venezuelan equine encephalitis, and the Rift Valley Fever vaccines, 
        which were also created at Fort Detrick, have been used to protect 
        people in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and other countries who are at 
        high risk of Rift Valley Fever;
Whereas, on January 27, 1969, the Office of the Surgeon General of the Army 
        established the United States Army Medical Research Institute of 
        Infectious Diseases (hereinafter in this resolution referred to as the 
        ``Institute''), which is located at Fort Detrick and is the Department 
        of Defense's lead laboratory for medical aspects of biological warfare 
        defense;
Whereas when outbreaks of hantaviral disease began in the southwestern United 
        States in 1993, the Institute was called upon by the Centers for Disease 
        Control and Prevention and by various State health departments for 
        consultations;
Whereas when the Ebola virus was first carried to the shores of the United 
        States in late 1989 by a primate colony found in Reston, Virginia, it 
        was researchers at the Institute who diagnosed and contained the 
        outbreak;
Whereas the Institute also played a key role in the identification of and 
        response to the initial outbreak of West Nile virus in New York;
Whereas the Institute continues its life-saving work by collaborating with the 
        Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes 
        of Health on the development of diagnostics and the evaluation of 
        antiviral drugs for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome;
Whereas the Institute created a vaccine against hemorrhagic fever in the 1980s, 
        which has possibly saved thousands of lives in Argentina, including the 
        lives of agricultural workers at risk for exposure to this hemorrhagic 
        fever virus;
Whereas the Institute was the only Federal laboratory to maintain a continuous 
        diagnostic reference capability on a 24-hour per day basis after the 
        attacks of September 11, 2001, and provided expertise in medical 
        diagnostics and decontamination that was key to ensuring that 
        congressional office buildings were safe to reoccupy after the anthrax 
        mail attacks in the fall of 2001;
Whereas leading vaccine candidates for anthrax, plague, tularemia, and botulinum 
        neurotoxins were all originally developed at the Institute;
Whereas the basic research program at the Institute is responsible for some of 
        the most promising medical countermeasures against the leading 
        biological threats that are on the ``A'' List of the Centers for Disease 
        Control and Prevention;
Whereas the Institute has established a partnership with the National Institute 
        of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health 
        to collaborate and accelerate biodefense research that will protect all 
        Americans against the threat of biological and chemical attacks by 
        terrorists;
Whereas in 1974, the United States Army Medical Materiel Agency was relocated to 
        Fort Detrick and the Navy, Air Force, and Army all now conduct medical 
        logistics planning and management at Fort Detrick in support of global 
        military operations;
Whereas the Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit of the Agricultural 
        Research Service of the Department of Agriculture has conducted high-
        priority research in the Plant Pathogen Containment Facility at Fort 
        Detrick for over 30 years, providing the agricultural community with 
        basic epidemiological information and rapid diagnostic assays for exotic 
        threatening and emerging crop diseases, such as Karnal bunt of wheat, 
        soybean rust, potato late blight, and plum pox virus;
Whereas Company B, 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 4th Marine 
        Division, United States Marine Corps Reserve, which has been assigned to 
        Fort Detrick since October 1987, had a mission of reconnaissance and 
        security in support of a Marine Air/Ground Task Force and received the 
        Meritorious Unit Citation for its service during Operation Desert Storm;
Whereas the Army's 1108th Signal Brigade at Fort Detrick provides important 
        strategic communication support to the White House and the Joint Chiefs 
        of Staff; and
Whereas the National Cancer Institute-Frederick at Fort Detrick, one of two 
        campuses of the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of 
        Health, is an internationally recognized center for scientific 
        excellence in the prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer and 
        AIDS: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That the Congress--
            (1) congratulates Fort Detrick, Maryland, on 60 years of 
        service to the Nation; and
            (2) commends the military and civilian personnel of the 
        Army, other elements of the Department of Defense, and other 
        Federal departments and agencies who have worked diligently at 
        Fort Detrick since its founding--
                    (A) to defend the United States against biological 
                and chemical attack; and
                    (B) to develop vaccines for all types of illnesses.

            Passed the House of Representatives October 1, 2003.

            Attest:

                                                 JEFF TRANDAHL,

                                                                 Clerk.