III 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION 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. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

OCTOBER 16, 2013 

Mr. KIRK (for himself, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. COCHRAN, Mr. WICKER, Mr. RUBIO, 

Mr. BOOZMAN, Mrs. SHAHEEN, Mr. BEGICH, Mr. ISAKSON, Mr. MURPHY, Mr. MORAN, Mrs. BOXER, Ms. AYOTTE, Mr. COONS, Ms. COLLINS, 

and Mrs. MURRAY) submitted the following resolution; which was referred 

to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

FEBRUARY 4, 2014 

Reported by Mr. MENENDEZ, without amendment 

FEBRUARY 6, 2014 

Considered and agreed to 

RESOLUTION 

Supporting the goals and ideals of World Polio Day and 

commending the international community and others for 

their efforts to prevent and eradicate polio. 

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; 


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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; 


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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 


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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 


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1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) supports the goals and ideals of World Polio 

3 Day; 

4 (2) commends the international community and 

5 others for their efforts in vaccinating children 

6 around the world against polio and for the tremen7 dous strides made toward eradicating the disease; 

8 (3) encourages and supports the international 

9 community of governments and nongovernmental or10 ganizations in remaining committed to the eradi11 cation of polio; 

12 (4) condemns the deplorable actions of terrorist 

13 and militant groups that murder innocent health 

14 care workers who are striving to save the lives of 

15 children around the world; 

16 (5) urges the international community of gov17 ernments to strengthen the support and security 

18 protection of health care workers who risk their lives 

19 to provide polio vaccinations; and 

20 (6) encourages continued commitment and 

21 funding by the United States Government and inter22 national donors to the global effort to rid the world 

23 of polio. 

Æ 


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