06.09.09

Durbin: Senate Passes Resolution in Support of Chicago 2016

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced that the United States Senate passed a resolution supporting Olympic Day on June 23, 2009 and encouraging the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to select Chicago, Illinois as the host city for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

 

“It has been over 100 years since a Midwestern city has hosted the Olympics and the return of the Games is long overdue,” said Durbin. “Organizers of Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics can now add the United States Senate to their list of supporters. I will continue to work with my colleagues to ensure that the federal government does its part to make Chicago’s Olympic dream a reality.”

 

For more than 100 years, the Olympic movement has built a more peaceful and better world by educating young people through amateur athletics, by bringing together athletes from many countries in friendly competition, and by forging new relationships bound by friendship, solidarity and fair play. As hundreds of local governments across the United States join together in support of the Chicago’s 2016 bid, this resolution celebrating Olympic Day 2009 will encourage the development of Olympic and Paralympic sports in the United States.

 

Cosponsors of today’s legislation include: Senators Roland Burris (D-IL), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Mark Udall (D-CO), Orin Hatch (R-UT) and Bob Bennett (R-UT).