•HJ 87 EH
Whereas his commitment to public service followed the exam-
ple of his fifth cousin, the 26th President of the United
States, Theodore Roosevelt;
Whereas sixty years ago, President Roosevelt became the only
President of the United States elected to a fourth term
in office;
Whereas President Roosevelt fulfilled his promise to lead the
Nation through the Great Depression by creating a series
of New Deal programs that fundamentally changed the
role of Government;
Whereas President Roosevelt’s leadership was instrumental in
extending freedom and democracy around the globe and
uniting the world confronted by tyranny and aggression;
Whereas President Roosevelt unified and mobilized the Amer-
ican effort after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and World
War II, encouraging patriotism and volunteerism;
Whereas through his war time leadership, President Roo-
sevelt directed the Government into the most productive
partnership with private enterprise in the Nation’s his-
tory by appointing top businessmen to run the production
agencies, exempting business from antitrust laws, allow-
ing business to write off the full cost of investments, and
guaranteeing a substantial profit;
Whereas as a result of his leadership, the United States was
outproducing all the Axis and the Allied powers com-
bined, contributing nearly 300,000 planes, 100,000
tanks, 2 million trucks, and 87,000 warships to the Allied
cause;
Whereas 2004 is the 60th anniversary of D-Day, which com-
memorates the largest air, land, and sea operation under-
taken before or since June 6, 1944;
•HJ 87 EH
Whereas in the spring of 2004, the National World War II
Memorial will be dedicated in Washington, DC, to en-
courage Americans to celebrate and remember the con-
tributions of President Roosevelt and the courageous men
and women which were critical to the American war ef-
fort at home and American military successes overseas;
Whereas President Roosevelt supported the effort to find a
cure for infantile paralysis (polio), by which he had been
paralyzed in 1921; in 1938, President Roosevelt founded
the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, a na-
tional organization which raised funds to find a cure for
polio; the following year, comedian Eddie Cantor asked
the Nation to mail dimes to the White House to help the
Foundation, and in one month, the White House received
2.5 million dimes; Cantor declared it ‘‘A March of
Dimes’’ and, in 1979, the name became the lasting mon-
iker for the Foundation;
Whereas President Roosevelt established the polio foundation
hospital at Warm Springs, Georgia, for the treatment of
polio patients, which had a profound impact on scores of
young Americans;
Whereas in a broadcast launching the annual March of
Dimes Campaign, President Harry S. Truman declared
‘‘The fight to conquer infantile paralysis is an unfinished
task of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It must and shall be
carried to complete victory.’’; thanks to President Roo-
sevelt and the March of Dimes, polio is largely now a
thing of the past in America and worldwide eradication
of polio is expected by 2005;
Whereas Americans who encountered and conquered polio
have benefited from the March of Dimes and from Presi-
dent Roosevelt’s example of courage;
•HJ 87 EH
Whereas Eleanor Roosevelt more than fulfilled her traditional
duties as First Lady;
Whereas she expanded the role, being voted the most admired
woman in America and even called ‘‘the First Lady of
the Western World’’ for her work on behalf of civil rights,
women’s rights, and human rights; she carried on the be-
liefs and ideals of her husband, serving as the foremost
spokesperson for human rights around the world as the
first chairperson of the U.N. Commission on Human
Rights;
Whereas President Roosevelt is loved and admired by millions
of Americans and by countless others around the world;
and
Whereas a grateful Nation and world are better off because
of President Roosevelt’s inimitable leadership: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That the Congress, on behalf of the American people, hon-
ors the life and legacy of President Franklin Delano Roo-
sevelt and recognizes his contributions on the anniversary
of the date of his birth.
Passed the House of Representatives March 17,
2004.
Attest:
Clerk.