[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4924 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4924

     To award a congressional gold medal to Dr. Norman E. Borlaug.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 9, 2006

Mr. Latham (for himself, Mr. Leach, Mr. King of Iowa, Mr. Boswell, Mr. 
Nussle, Mr. Sabo, Mr. Kennedy of Minnesota, Mr. Peterson of Minnesota, 
Mr. Gutknecht, Mr. Oberstar, Mr. Kline, and Mr. Ramstad) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial 
                                Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To award a congressional gold medal to Dr. Norman E. Borlaug.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Congressional Tribute to Dr. Norman 
E. Borlaug Act of 2006''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds as follows:
            (1) Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, was born in Iowa where he grew 
        up on a family farm, and received his primary and secondary 
        education.
            (2) Dr. Borlaug attended the University of Minnesota where 
        he received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees and was also a star NCAA 
        wrestler.
            (3) For the past 20 years, Dr. Borlaug has lived in Texas 
        where he is a member of the faculty of Texas A&M University.
            (4) Dr. Borlaug also serves as President of the Sasakawa 
        Africa Association.
            (5) Dr. Borlaug's accomplishments in terms of bringing 
        radical change to world agriculture and uplifting humanity are 
        without parallel.
            (6) In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Dr. Borlaug 
        spent 20 years working in the poorest areas of rural Mexico. It 
        was there that Dr. Borlaug made his breakthrough achievement in 
        developing a strain of wheat that could exponentially increase 
        yields while actively resisting disease.
            (7) With the active support of the governments involved, 
        Dr. Borlaug's ``green revolution'' uplifted hundreds of 
        thousands of the rural poor in Mexico and saved hundreds of 
        millions from famine and outright starvation in India and 
        Pakistan.
            (8) Dr. Borlaug's approach to wheat production next spread 
        throughout the Middle East. Soon thereafter his approach was 
        adapted to rice growing, increasing the number of lives Dr. 
        Borlaug has saved to more than a billion people.
            (9) In 1970, Dr. Borlaug received the Nobel Prize, the only 
        person working in agriculture to ever be so honored. Since then 
        he has received numerous honors and awards including the 
        Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Public Service Medal, the 
        National Academy of Sciences' highest honor, and the Rotary 
        International Award for World Understanding and Peace.
            (10) At age 91, Dr. Borlaug continues to work to alleviate 
        poverty and malnutrition. He currently serves as president of 
        Sasakawa Global 2000 Africa Project, which seeks to extend the 
        benefits of agricultural development to the 800,000,000 people 
        still mired in poverty and malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa.
            (11) Dr. Borlaug continues to serve as Chairman of the 
        Council of Advisors of the World Food Prize, an organization he 
        created in 1986 to be the ``Nobel Prize for Food and 
        Agriculture'' and which presents a $250,000 prize each October 
        at a Ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa, to the Laureate who has made 
        an exceptional achievement similar to Dr. Borlaug's 
        breakthrough 40 years ago. In the almost 20 years of its 
        existence, the World Food Prize has honored Laureates from 
        Bangladesh, India, China, Mexico, Denmark, Sierra Leone, 
        Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
            (12) Dr. Borlaug has saved more lives than any other person 
        who has ever lived, and likely has saved more lives in the 
        Islamic world than any other human being in history.
            (13) Due to a lifetime of work that has led to the saving 
        and preservation of an untold amount of lives, Dr. Norman E. 
        Borlaug is deserving of America's highest civilian award: the 
        congressional gold medal.

SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

    (a) Presentation Authorized.--The President Pro Tempore of the 
Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives are authorized 
to make appropriate arrangements for the presentation, on behalf of 
Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design, to Dr. Norman E. 
Borlaug, in recognition of his enduring contributions to the United 
States and the world.
    (b) Design and Striking.--For the purpose of the presentation 
referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (hereafter 
in this Act referred to as the ``Secretary'') shall strike a gold medal 
with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by 
the Secretary.

SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

    Under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the 
Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal 
struck under section 3 at a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, 
including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead 
expenses, and the cost of the gold medal.

SEC. 5. STATUS AS NATIONAL MEDALS.

    (a) National Medal.--The medal struck under this Act is a national 
medal for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.
    (b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of section 5134 of title 31, 
United States Code, all duplicate medals struck under this Act shall be 
considered to be numismatic items.

SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF SALE.

    (a) Authority to Use Fund Amounts.--There are authorized to be 
charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund, such 
sums as may be necessary to pay for the cost of the medals struck under 
this Act.
    (b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate 
bronze medals under section 4 shall be deposited in the United States 
Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
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