[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4384 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4384

   To authorize the President to award gold medals on behalf of the 
   Congress to the family of Andrew Jackson Higgins and the wartime 
employees of Higgins Industries, in recognition of their contributions 
        to the Nation and to the Allied victory in World War II.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 4, 2000

  Mr. Jefferson (for himself, Mr. Tauzin, Mr. McCrery, Mr. Baker, Mr. 
John, Mr. Cooksey, and Mr. Vitter) introduced the following bill; which 
    was referred to the Committee on Banking and Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To authorize the President to award gold medals on behalf of the 
   Congress to the family of Andrew Jackson Higgins and the wartime 
employees of Higgins Industries, in recognition of their contributions 
        to the Nation and to the Allied victory in World War II.

    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) Andrew Jackson Higgins designed, engineered, and 
        produced high speed boats and various types of amphibious 
        military landing craft, later to become known as ``Higgins 
        boats'', which were used by Allied forces during World War II.
            (2) Higgins boats, constructed of wood and steel, 
        transported fully-armed troops, light tanks, field artillery, 
        and other mechanized equipment essential to Allied amphibious 
        operations, including the decisive D-Day attack at Normandy, 
        France.
            (3) Andrew Jackson Higgins also designed, engineered, and 
        constructed four major assembly line plants in New Orleans for 
        mass production of Higgins landing craft and other vessels 
        vital to the Allied forces' conduct of World War II.
            (4) Andrew Jackson Higgins' foresight, in purchasing the 
        materials needed to produce a large number of boats even before 
        the United States became embroiled in World War II, contributed 
        the Nation's readiness when it finally did enter the war.
            (5) Andrew Jackson Higgins instituted a progressive social 
        policy in his Higgins Industries factories by employing a 
        fully-integrated assembly line work force of more than 20,000 
        black and white men and women during World War II, with equal 
        pay for equal work, decades before legal requirements for 
        integration and racial and gender equality were instituted.
            (6) Prior to November 1940, when Higgins Industries began 
        producing Higgins boats for the United States Government, the 
        Navy had only 18 landing craft in its fleet; by the conclusion 
        of the war, Higgins Industries had produced 20,094 landing 
        craft of all types and had trained more than 30,000 Navy, 
        Marine, and Coast Guard personnel in their use.
            (7) In 1964, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower said of 
        Andrew Jackson Higgins, ``He is the man who won the war for us. 
        If Higgins had not developed and produced those landing craft, 
        we never could have gone in over an open beach. We would have 
        had to change the entire strategy of the war.''
            (8) Together, Andrew Jackson Higgins and the employees of 
        Higgins Industries provided a decisive and essential 
        contribution to the United States and Allied victory in World 
        War II while practicing racial and gender workplace equality 
        far in advance of the norm for the time.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDALS.

    (a) Presentation Authorized.--The President is authorized to 
present, on behalf of the Congress--
            (1) a gold medal of appropriate design to the family of 
        Andrew Jackson Higgins in recognition of his contributions to 
        the Nation and to the Allied victory in World War II;
            (2) a gold medal identical to the medal referred to in 
        paragraph (1) to the D-Day Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, 
        for public display; and
            (3) a gold medal of appropriate design to the D-Day Museum 
        in New Orleans, Louisiana, in honor of the World War II 
        employees of Higgins Industries and in recognition of their 
        contributions to the Nation and to the Allied victory in World 
        War II.
    (b) Design and Striking.--For the purpose of the presentations 
referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury 
(hereinafter in this Act referred to as the ``Secretary'') shall strike 
gold medals with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be 
determined by the Secretary.

SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

    Under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the 
Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medals 
struck under section 2 at a price sufficient to cover the costs of the 
duplicate bronze medals (including labor, materials, dies, use of 
machinery, and overhead expenses) and the cost of the gold medals.

SEC. 4. NATIONAL MEDALS.

    The medals struck under this Act are national medals for purposes 
of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.

SEC. 5. FUNDING AND PROCEEDS OF SALE.

    (a) Authorization.--There is hereby authorized to be charged 
against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund an amount not to 
exceed $60,000 to pay for the cost of the medals authorized by this 
Act.
    (b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate 
bronze medals under section 3 shall be deposited in the United States 
Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
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