[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 52 (Wednesday, April 14, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2298-S2299]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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SENATE RESOLUTION 479--EXPRESSING SYMPATHY FOR THE PEOPLE OF POLAND IN 
THE AFTERMATH OF THE DEVASTATING PLANE CRASH THAT KILLED THE COUNTRY'S 
PRESIDENT, FIRST LADY, AND 94 OTHER HIGH RANKING GOVERNMENT, MILITARY, 
                  AND CIVIC LEADERS ON APRIL 10, 2010

  Mr. DURBIN (for himself, Mr. Johanns, Mr. Kerry, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. 
Voinovich, Mr. Brown of Ohio, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Reid, Mr. McConnell, Mr. 
Kyl, Mr. Akaka, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Barrasso, Mr. Baucus, Mr. Bayh, Mr. 
Begich, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Bingaman, Mr. Bond, Mrs. Boxer, 
Mr. Brown of Massachusetts, Mr. Brownback, Mr. Bunning, Mr. Burr, Mr. 
Burris, Mr. Byrd, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Carper, Mr. Casey, Mr. Chambliss, 
Mr. Coburn, Mr. Cochran, Ms. Collins, Mr. Conrad, Mr. Corker, Mr. 
Cornyn, Mr. Crapo, Mr. DeMint, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Dorgan, Mr. Ensign, Mr. 
Enzi, Mr. Feingold, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Franken, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. 
Graham, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Gregg, Mrs. Hagan, Mr. Harkin, Mr. Hatch, 
Mrs. Hutchison, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Inouye, Mr. Isakson, Mr. Johnson, Mr. 
Kaufman, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Kohl, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. 
Leahy, Mr. LeMieux, Mr. Levin, Mr. Lieberman, Mrs. Lincoln, Mr. Lugar, 
Mr. McCain, Mrs. McCaskill, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Merkley, Ms. Murkowski, 
Mrs. Murray, Mr. Nelson of Nebraska, Mr. Nelson of Florida, Mr. Pryor, 
Mr. Reed, Mr. Risch, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Sanders, Mr. 
Schumer, Mr. Sessions, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Shelby, Ms. Snowe, Mr. 
Specter, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Tester, Mr. Thune, Mr. Udall of Colorado, 
Mr. Udall of New Mexico, Mr. Vitter, Mr. Warner, Mr. Webb, Mr. 
Whitehouse, Mr. Wicker, and Mr. Wyden) submitted the following 
resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 479

       Whereas the United States and Poland are close allies, with 
     a shared bond of history, friendship, and international 
     cooperation;
       Whereas Polish immigrants were among the first Jamestown 
     settlers, and Casimir Pulaski immigrated to the United States 
     to fight in the Revolutionary War;
       Whereas more than 9,000,000 Americans of Polish descent now 
     reside in the United States, bringing vitality to major 
     metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Detroit, and New York 
     City;
       Whereas Polish-Americans have been leaders in all walks of 
     American life;
       Whereas the American people stood in support of the 
     Solidarity movement as it fought against the oppression of 
     the communist government of Poland through peaceful means, 
     eventually leading to Solidarity members being elected to 
     office in open democratic elections held on June 4, 1989, 
     events that helped spark the movement to democracy throughout 
     eastern Europe;
       Whereas Poland joined the North Atlantic Treaty 
     Organization (NATO) in 1999, joined the European Union in 
     2004, and has contributed to United States and NATO 
     operations in Iraq and Afghanistan;
       Whereas Poland has enjoyed a thriving and prosperous free 
     market democracy since the end of the Cold War;
       Whereas the President of Poland Lech Kaczynski and 95 other 
     people, including Poland's First Lady, the deputy foreign 
     minister, dozens of members of Parliament, the chiefs of the 
     army and navy, and the president of the national bank, were 
     tragically killed in a plane crash in western Russia on April 
     10, 2010;
       Whereas President Kaczynski and his colleagues were 
     traveling to Katyn, Russia for a memorial service to mark the 
     70th anniversary of the Soviet secret police killing of more 
     than 20,000 Polish officers, prisoners, and intellectuals who 
     were captured after the Soviet Union invaded Poland in 1939;
       Whereas Anna Walentynowicz, the former dock worker whose 
     firing in 1980 sparked the Solidarity strike that ultimately 
     overthrew the communist government of Poland, was also killed 
     in the crash;
       Whereas Ryszard Kaczorowski, who served as Poland's final 
     president in exile before the country's return to democracy, 
     also perished in the crash;
       Whereas Chicago suffered the loss of a respected artist 
     when Wojciech Seweryn, whose father was killed in Katyn, died 
     in the crash;
       Whereas Mr. Seweryn recently completed a memorial to the 
     victims of Katyn at St. Adalbert Cemetery in Niles, Illinois, 
     which President Kaczynski planned to visit in May;
       Whereas President Barack Obama said, the ``loss is 
     devastating to Poland, to the United States, and to the 
     world. President Kaczynski was a distinguished statesman who 
     played a key role in the Solidarity movement, and he was 
     widely admired in the United States as a leader dedicated to 
     advancing freedom and human dignity.'';
       Whereas Former Solidarity leader and ex-president Lech 
     Walesa said, ``Today, we lost part of our intellectual elite 
     in a plane crash. It will take a long time until the wounds 
     of our democracy are healed.''; and
       Whereas thousands of Poles gathered in the center of Warsaw 
     and elsewhere around the world on Saturday to mourn those 
     killed in the crash and affirm their continued solidarity 
     with the people of Poland: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) expresses its deepest sympathies to the people of 
     Poland and the families of those who perished for their 
     profound loss;
       (2) expresses strong and continued solidarity with the 
     people of Poland and Polish-American communities in the 
     United States; and
       (3) expresses unwavering support for the Government of 
     Poland as it works to address the loss of many key public 
     officials.

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