100 STAT. 4504
PROCLAMATION 5545—OCT. 8, 1986
The nerve damage resulting from this disease can have devastating consequences, including muscle paralysis, loss of sensation in the skin, and spine and limb deformities. Most babies with spina bifida also develop hydrocephalus—a potentially dangerous buildup of fluid pressure within the brain. But thanks to important advances in neurosurgery and antibiotic therapy, a baby born with spina bifida today has between an 80 and 95 percent chance for survival. And the development of new surgical and bracing procedures and devices to compensate for lost function have made it possible for patients to lead more active and normal lives. Research now under way in the Nation's scientific laboratories is aimed at improving our understanding the cause of this disease and developing methods to prevent it. Much of this work is being done by scientists supported by the Federal government's National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Voluntary agencies like the Spina Bifida Association of America, the National Easter Seal Society, and the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation also promote vital research and provide essential services and encouragement to families. In the work of these agencies, and that of the researchers and clinicians they sponsor, lies the hope that we will one day conquer spina bifida. To enhance public awareness of the problem of spina bifida, the Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 368, has designated the month of October 1986 as "National Spina Bifida Month" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this event. NOW, THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the month of October 1986 as National Spina Bifida Month, and I call upon the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate observances and activities. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 8th day of Oct., in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh. RONALD REAGAN
Proclamation 5545 of October 8, 1986
National Job Skills Week, 1986 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation i f j r--r^..'^ ^ ^;^,^; The economy of the United States, in the midst of one of the longest sustained periods of growth since World War II, is creating a record number of new jobs. More Americans are at work now than ever before. Technological advances in all areas of American industry are contributing not only to the growth in the number of jobs, but to sustained growth in productivity. The dynamic changes occurring in our own marketplace as well as in the global economy will place an even greater emphasis on the development of new job skills. One of America's greatest competitive assets is the high quality and productivity of its work force. It is appropriate, therefore, that Americans have
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