[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;

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       (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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