1.This Act may be cited as the
Alice Paul Congressional Gold Medal
Act
.
2.The Congress finds as follows:
(1)Alice Paul was born on January, 11, 1885,
in Moorestown New Jersey, and died on July 9, 1977.
(2)Alice Paul
dedicated her life to securing suffrage and equal rights for all women and, as
founder of the National Woman’s Party, she was instrumental in the passage of
the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
(3)Alice Paul and the
National Woman’s Party were the first group ever to picket the White
House.
(4)While President
Woodrow Wilson trumpeted America’s values of democracy abroad during World War
I, Alice Paul was dedicated to reminding the President that not all Americans
enjoyed democracy at home.
(5)Alice Paul used
nonviolent civil disobedience to bring national attention to the women’s
suffrage movement, such as the 3-week hunger strike she undertook when she was
sentenced to jail in October, 1917, for her demonstrations.
(6)Alice Paul’s
courage inspired thousands of women to join the women’s suffrage
movement.
(7)Instead of
patiently waiting for States to grant women suffrage, Alice Paul mobilized an
entire generation of women to pressure the United States Congress and the
President to give all women in America the right to vote.
(8)Alice Paul did not
stop her fight after the 19th Amendment was ratified; she drafted the Equal
Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1923 and fought
tirelessly for its passage until her death 54 years later.
(9)Alice Paul lobbied
Congress to include gender in civil rights bills and was successful in
including sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964.
(10)Alice Paul sought
equal rights for women all over the world, not just Americans and, as a means
of pursuing this goal, founded the World Party for Equal Rights for Women in
the 1930s.
(11)Alice Paul was
instrumental in the placement of a passage on gender equality in the preamble
of the United Nations Charter.
(12)Few people have played a greater role in
shaping the history of the United States than Alice Paul.
(13)Alice Paul is an
example to all Americans of what one person can do to make a difference for
millions of people.
3.
(a)The Speaker of the
House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make
appropriate arrangements for the posthumous presentation, on behalf of the
Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design in commemoration of Alice Paul,
in recognition of her role in the women’s suffrage movement and in advancing
equal rights for women.
(b)For purposes 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.
4.The Secretary may
strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to
section 3 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, and the cost of the gold medal.
5.
(a)The medals struck pursuant to this Act are national medals
for purposes of
chapter 51 of title 31,
United States Code.
(b)For purposes of
section
5134 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck under
this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items.
6.Authority to use
fund amounts; proceeds of sale
(a)Authority to use
fund amountsThere is authorized to be charged against the United
States Mint Public Enterprise Fund, such amounts as may be necessary to pay for
the costs of the medals struck pursuant to this Act.
(b)Amounts received from the sale of duplicate bronze medals
authorized under section 4 shall be deposited into the United States Mint
Public Enterprise Fund.