[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 23 (Thursday, February 6, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S833-S834]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUPPORTING THE GOALS AND IDEALS OF WORLD POLIO DAY
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 302, S. Res. 270.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A resolution (S. Res. 270) supporting the goals and ideals
of World Polio Day and commending the international community
and others for their efforts to prevent and eradicate polio.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the
resolution.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution
be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider
be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The resolution (S. Res. 270) was agreed to.
The preamble was agreed to.
The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:
S. Res. 270
Whereas October 24th of each year is recognized
internationally as World Polio Day;
Whereas polio is a highly infectious disease that primarily
affects children and for which there is no known cure;
Whereas polio can leave survivors permanently disabled from
muscle paralysis of the limbs and occasionally leads to a
particularly difficult death through paralysis of respiratory
muscles;
Whereas polio was once one of the most dreaded diseases in
the United States, killing thousands of people annually in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries and leaving thousands
more with permanent disabilities, including the 32nd
President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt;
Whereas severe polio outbreaks in the 1940s and 1950s
caused panic in the United States, as parents kept children
indoors, public health officials quarantined infected
individuals, and the Federal Government restricted commerce
and travel;
Whereas 1952 was the peak of the polio epidemic in the
United States, with more than 57,000 people affected, 21,000
of whom were paralyzed and 3,000 of whom died;
Whereas safe and effective polio vaccines, including the
inactivated polio vaccine (commonly known as ``IPV''),
developed in 1952 by Jonas Salk, and the oral polio vaccine
(commonly known as ``OPV''), developed in 1957 by Albert
Sabin, rendered polio preventable and contributed to the
rapid decline of the incidence of polio in the United States;
Whereas, although the United States has been free from
polio since 1979, this preventable disease still needlessly
lays victim to children and adults in several countries where
challenges, such as active conflict and lack of
infrastructure, impede access to vaccines;
Whereas the Federal Government is the leading public sector
donor to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and provides
technical and operational leadership to this global effort
through the work of the Centers for Disease Control and the
United States Agency for International Development;
Whereas the eradication of polio is the highest priority of
Rotary International, a global association founded in 1905 in
Chicago, Illinois, that is now headquartered in Evanston,
Illinois, and has more than 1,200,000 members in more than
170 countries;
Whereas Rotary International and its members (commonly
known as ``Rotarians'') have contributed more than
$1,000,000,000 to, and volunteered countless hours in, the
global fight against polio;
Whereas Rotary International, the World Health
Organization, the United States Government, the United
Nations Children's Fund (commonly known as ``UNICEF''), the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the United Nations
Foundation have joined together with national governments to
successfully reduce cases of polio by more than 99 percent
since 1988, from more than 350,000 reported cases in 1988 to
223 reported cases in 2012;
Whereas polio was recently eliminated in India and is now
endemic only in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan;
Whereas terrorist and militant groups continue to target
and murder health care workers who seek to save the lives of
children;
Whereas the sanctity and neutrality of health care workers
must be respected, as these workers deliver the most basic of
life-saving interventions to children and communities;
Whereas the recent polio outbreak in the Horn of Africa,
comprising Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya, continues to result
in new cases of the disease, exacerbating the protracted
humanitarian crisis in the region and highlighting the urgent
need to finally eradicate polio before progress is lost;
Whereas countries around the world are placing an
unprecedented emphasis on polio eradication, including by
implementing Emergency Action Plans to boost vaccination
coverage in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan;
Whereas the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has
developed the Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan
2013-2018 (referred to in this preamble as the ``Endgame
Strategy'') to capitalize on the opportunity to eradicate all
polio disease;
Whereas the Endgame Strategy also outlines a legacy
planning process to ensure that lessons learned in the effort
to eradicate polio, as well as the assets and infrastructure
built in support of that effort, are transitioned to benefit
other development goals and global health priorities,
including the continued delivery of health services to the
most vulnerable children in the world;
Whereas the global effort to eradicate polio is the largest
internationally coordinated public health effort in history,
with a network of over 20,000,000 volunteers worldwide; and
Whereas the eradication of polio is imminently achievable
and will be a victory shared by all of humanity: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) supports the goals and ideals of World Polio Day;
(2) commends the international community and others for
their efforts in vaccinating children around the world
against polio and for the tremendous strides made toward
eradicating the disease;
(3) encourages and supports the international community of
governments and nongovernmental organizations in remaining
committed to the eradication of polio;
[[Page S834]]
(4) condemns the deplorable actions of terrorist and
militant groups that murder innocent health care workers who
are striving to save the lives of children around the world;
(5) urges the international community of governments to
strengthen the support and security protection of health care
workers who risk their lives to provide polio vaccinations;
and
(6) encourages continued commitment and funding by the
United States Government and international donors to the
global effort to rid the world of polio.
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