IV 
112TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 704 
Commending Rotary International and others for their efforts to prevent 
and eradicate polio. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 26, 2012 
Mr. MCDERMOTT (for himself, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. RUSH, Mr. HINCHEY, 
Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. NORTON, Ms. SPEIER, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. 
MCCOLLUM, Mr. FILNER, Mr. OLVER, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. MORAN, Ms. 
MOORE, Mr. COHEN, Mr. SCHOCK, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, and Mr. 
MCGOVERN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Commending Rotary International and others for their 
efforts to prevent and eradicate polio. 
Whereas polio is a highly infectious disease that primarily af-
fects 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 the paralysis of res-
piratory muscles; 
Whereas polio was once one of the most dreaded diseases in 
the United States, killing thousands annually in the late 
19th and early 20th centuries and leaving thousands 
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more with permanent disability, including the 32nd Presi-
dent 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 chil-
dren indoors, public health officials quarantined infected 
individuals, and the Federal Government restricted com-
merce 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 Inac-
tivated Polio Vaccine (commonly known as ‘‘IPV’’), devel-
oped in 1952 by Jonas Salk, and the Oral Polio Vaccine 
(commonly known as ‘‘OPV’’), developed in 1957 by Al-
bert Sabin, rendered polio preventable and contributed to 
the rapid decline of polio incidence in the United States; 
Whereas polio, a preventable disease that the United States 
has been free from since 1979, still needlessly lays victim 
to children and adults in several countries where chal-
lenges such as active conflict and lack of infrastructure 
hamper access to vaccines; 
Whereas the eradication of polio is the highest priority of Ro-
tary International, a global association that was founded 
in 1905 in Chicago, Illinois, is currently headquartered in 
Evanston, Illinois, and has 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 and volunteered countless hours in the 
global fight against polio; 
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•HRES 704 IH 
Whereas the Federal Government is the leading public sector 
donor to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and pro-
vides technical and operational leadership to this global 
effort through the work of the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and the United States Agency for International De-
velopment; 
Whereas Rotary International, the World Health Organiza-
tion, the United States Government, the United Nations 
Children’s Fund (commonly known as ‘‘UNICEF’’), and 
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have joined to-
gether with national governments to successfully reduce 
cases of polio by more than 99 percent since 1988, from 
350,000 reported cases in 1988 to fewer than 700 re-
ported cases in 2011; 
Whereas polio was recently eliminated in India and is now en-
demic only in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan; and 
Whereas the eradication of polio is imminently achievable and 
will be a victory shared by all of humanity: Now, there-
fore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) commends Rotary International and others 
for their efforts in vaccinating children around the 
world against polio and for the tremendous strides 
made toward eradicating the disease once and for 
all; 
(2) encourages the international community of 
governments and non-governmental organizations to 
remain committed to the elimination of polio; and 
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(3) encourages continued commitment and 
funding by the United States Government to the 
global effort to rid the world of polio. 
Æ 
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