News Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Bill Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, visited with U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) on Wednesday to discuss initiatives to address poor health and extreme poverty in developing countries, including the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. During the meeting, he thanked Sen. Moran for his leadership in supporting eradicating polio as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. As Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies, Sen. Moran supported funding for the world-wide eradication of polio in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 Omnibus appropriations bill.

"I commend Bill Gates for his foundation’s leadership in eradicating polio across the globe, and share his strong commitment to ridding the world of this terrible disease,” Sen. Moran said. “Along with my Senate and House colleagues, we made this commitment clear with the inclusion of $146 million for polio eradication in the 2014 Omnibus, which passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law in January. With 99 percent of the work complete – and only a handful of countries in the world still facing endemic polio – now the time to stay focused. With continued commitment and determination from groups like the Gates Foundation and Rotary international, together we can put an end to this cruel disease."

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan 2013–2018 lays out a blueprint for eradicating polio in the last three polio-endemic countries – Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan – and certification of a polio-free world by 2018.

In addition to eradication polio, Sen. Moran has worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a co-chair of the Senate Hunger Caucus. The Foundation works to support agricultural development as a means of fighting hunger in developing countries.

Please find attached a photo of Senator Moran with Bill Gates in the Senator’s Washington, D.C. office.

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