[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 230 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 230
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th
President of the United States whose visionary leadership secured
passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, Social Security
Amendments Act (Medicare) of 1965, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Higher
Education Act of 1965, and Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965.
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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 10, 2023
Ms. Jackson Lee introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on Financial Services
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A BILL
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th
President of the United States whose visionary leadership secured
passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, Social Security
Amendments Act (Medicare) of 1965, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Higher
Education Act of 1965, and Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) As a Member of Congress from the Tenth Congressional
District of Texas, as majority leader of the U.S. Senate, Vice
President and President of the United States, Lyndon Baines
Johnson's accomplishments in the fields of civil rights,
education, and economic opportunity rank among the greatest
achievements of the past half century.
(2) As President, Lyndon Johnson proposed, championed, led
to passage, and signed into law on August 6, 1965, the Voting
Rights Act of 1965, which swept away barriers impeding millions
of Americans from meaningful participation in American
political life.
(3) On July 30, 1965, President Johnson signed into law the
Social Security Amendments Act of 1965, popularly known as
Medicare, which has transformed the delivery of health care in
the United States and which, along with Social Security,
reduced the rate of poverty among the elderly from 28.5 percent
in 1966 to 9.1 percent in 2012.
(4) On July 2, 1964, President Johnson secured passage and
signed into law the most sweeping civil rights legislation
since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which
prohibits discrimination in employment, education, and public
accommodations based on race, color, religion, or national
origin.
(5) On November 8, 1965, President Johnson signed into law
the Higher Education Act, which provided need-based financial
aid to students in the form of scholarships, work-study grants,
and loans, and thus made higher education more accessible to
populations of persons who were previously unable to attend
college because of economic circumstances.
(6) On October 3, 1965, President Johnson signed into law
the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, which
transformed the Nation's immigration system by abolishing the
racially based quota system that had defined American
immigration policy for four decades and replaced it with a
policy whose central purpose was family reunification, with a
preference for immigrants with specific skill sets.
(7) According to Robert A. Caro, the preeminent biographer
of Lyndon Baines Johnson, with the single exception of Lincoln,
President Johnson was the greatest champion of the poor and
underprivileged in the history of the Republic and was the
President ``who wrote mercy and justice into the statute books
by which America was governed''.
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.
(a) Presentation Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of
Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make
appropriate arrangements for the posthumous award, on behalf of
Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design to Lyndon Baines
Johnson in recognition of his contributions to the Nation, including
passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Social Security
Amendments Act (Medicare) of 1965, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the
Higher Education Act of 1965, and the Immigration and Naturalization
Act of 1965.
(b) Design and Striking.--For purposes of the presentation referred
to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (referred to in
this Act as the ``Secretary'') shall strike a gold medal with suitable
emblems, devices, and inscriptions to be determined by the Secretary.
(c) Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum.--
(1) In general.--Following the award of the gold medal
under subsection (a), the gold medal shall be given to the
Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, where it will be
available for display as appropriate and available for
research.
(2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of the Congress
that the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum should make
the gold medal awarded pursuant to this Act available for
display elsewhere, particularly at appropriate locations
associated with Lyndon Baines Johnson.
SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS.
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold
medal struck pursuant to section 2 under such regulations as the
Secretary may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the cost
thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and
overhead expenses.
SEC. 4. STATUS OF MEDALS.
(a) National Medals.--The medals struck pursuant to this Act are
national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States
Code.
(b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of sections 5134 and 5136 of
title 31, United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be
considered to be numismatic items.
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