III 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 271
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
OCTOBER 2, 2003
Received; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Congratulating Fort Detrick, Maryland, on 60 years of 
service to the Nation.
Whereas April 10, 2003, was the 60th anniversary of the 
founding of the Army installation in Frederick, Mary-
land, named Fort Detrick; 
Whereas Fort Detrick is designated as an Army Medical In-
stallation and is home to the United States Army Medical 
Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), one of 
two campuses of the National Cancer Institute (NCI-
HCON 271 RFS 
Frederick), and 36 other organizations of the Depart-
ment of Defense and other Federal departments;
Whereas the primary missions of the organizations at Fort 
Detrick include biomedical research and development, 
medical materiel management, and global telecommuni-
cations; 
Whereas throughout that installation’s 60-year history, the 
personnel and organizations assigned to that installation 
have contributed scientific breakthroughs and medical so-
lutions for the Armed Forces and the Nation; 
Whereas Fort Detrick is a focal point for the Nation’s bio-
medical scientific leadership and has contributed exten-
sively to protecting and improving public health in the 
United States; 
Whereas Fort Detrick has been home to preeminent research-
ers in bacteriology, microbiology, clinical and preventative 
medicine, biochemistry, neurology, botany, virology, and 
genomics; 
Whereas the research program at Fort Detrick was a pioneer 
in the laboratory facility designs, equipment, and proce-
dures that are used for infectious disease research in lab-
oratories worldwide; 
Whereas researchers at Fort Detrick have improved public 
health throughout the world through the creation of botu-
linum antibodies, which have been used to treat both in-
fant and adult victims of botulism; 
Whereas the Venezuelan equine encephalitis vaccines, which 
were created at Fort Detrick, have been used to control 
human and animal outbreaks of Venezuelan equine en-
cephalitis, and the Rift Valley Fever vaccines, which were 
also created at Fort Detrick, have been used to protect
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people in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and other coun-
tries who are at high risk of Rift Valley Fever; 
Whereas, on January 27, 1969, the Office of the Surgeon 
General of the Army established the United States Army 
Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (herein-
after in this resolution referred to as the ‘‘Institute’’), 
which is located at Fort Detrick and is the Department 
of Defense’s lead laboratory for medical aspects of bio-
logical warfare defense; 
Whereas when outbreaks of hantaviral disease began in the 
southwestern United States in 1993, the Institute was 
called upon by the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention and by various State health departments for con-
sultations; 
Whereas when the Ebola virus was first carried to the shores 
of the United States in late 1989 by a primate colony 
found in Reston, Virginia, it was researchers at the Insti-
tute who diagnosed and contained the outbreak; 
Whereas the Institute also played a key role in the identifica-
tion of and response to the initial outbreak of West Nile 
virus in New York; 
Whereas the Institute continues its life-saving work by col-
laborating with the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention and the National Institutes of Health on the de-
velopment of diagnostics and the evaluation of antiviral 
drugs for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome; 
Whereas the Institute created a vaccine against hemorrhagic 
fever in the 1980s, which has possibly saved thousands 
of lives in Argentina, including the lives of agricultural 
workers at risk for exposure to this hemorrhagic fever 
virus;
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Whereas the Institute was the only Federal laboratory to 
maintain a continuous diagnostic reference capability on 
a 24-hour per day basis after the attacks of September 
11, 2001, and provided expertise in medical diagnostics 
and decontamination that was key to ensuring that con-
gressional office buildings were safe to reoccupy after the 
anthrax mail attacks in the fall of 2001; 
Whereas leading vaccine candidates for anthrax, plague, tula-
remia, and botulinum neurotoxins were all originally de-
veloped at the Institute; 
Whereas the basic research program at the Institute is re-
sponsible for some of the most promising medical coun-
termeasures against the leading biological threats that 
are on the ‘‘A’’ List of the Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention; 
Whereas the Institute has established a partnership with the 
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of 
the National Institutes of Health to collaborate and ac-
celerate biodefense research that will protect all Ameri-
cans against the threat of biological and chemical attacks 
by terrorists; 
Whereas in 1974, the United States Army Medical Materiel 
Agency was relocated to Fort Detrick and the Navy, Air 
Force, and Army all now conduct medical logistics plan-
ning and management at Fort Detrick in support of glob-
al military operations; 
Whereas the Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit of 
the Agricultural Research Service of the Department of 
Agriculture has conducted high-priority research in the 
Plant Pathogen Containment Facility at Fort Detrick for 
over 30 years, providing the agricultural community with
HCON 271 RFS 
basic epidemiological information and rapid diagnostic as-
says for exotic threatening and emerging crop diseases, 
such as Karnal bunt of wheat, soybean rust, potato late 
blight, and plum pox virus; 
Whereas Company B, 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance 
Battalion, 4th Marine Division, United States Marine 
Corps Reserve, which has been assigned to Fort Detrick 
since October 1987, had a mission of reconnaissance and 
security in support of a Marine Air/Ground Task Force 
and received the Meritorious Unit Citation for its service 
during Operation Desert Storm; 
Whereas the Army’s 1108th Signal Brigade at Fort Detrick 
provides important strategic communication support to 
the White House and the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and 
Whereas the National Cancer Institute-Frederick at Fort 
Detrick, one of two campuses of the National Cancer In-
stitute of the National Institutes of Health, is an inter-
nationally recognized center for scientific excellence in the 
prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer and AIDS: 
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That the Congress—
(1) congratulates Fort Detrick, Maryland, on 
60 years of service to the Nation; and 
(2) commends the military and civilian per-
sonnel of the Army, other elements of the Depart-
ment of Defense, and other Federal departments 
and agencies who have worked diligently at Fort 
Detrick since its founding—