[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 474 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.474

                       One Hundred Tenth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE FIRST SESSION

          Begun and held at the City of Washington on Thursday,
            the fourth day of January, two thousand and seven


                                 An Act


 
   To award a congressional gold medal to Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
    The Congress makes the following findings:
        (1) Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D., was born on September 7, 1908, 
    in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Shaker and Raheeja DeBakey.
        (2) Dr. DeBakey, at the age of 23 and still a medical student, 
    reported a major invention, a roller pump for blood transfusions, 
    which later became a major component of the heart-lung machine used 
    in the first successful open-heart operation.
        (3) Even though Dr. DeBakey had already achieved a national 
    reputation as an authority on vascular disease and had a promising 
    career as a surgeon and teacher, he volunteered for military 
    service during World War II, joining the Surgeon General's staff 
    and rising to the rank of Colonel and Chief of the Surgical 
    Consultants Division.
        (4) As a result of this first-hand knowledge of military 
    service, Dr. DeBakey made numerous recommendations for the proper 
    staged management of war wounds, which led to the development of 
    mobile army surgical hospitals or ``MASH'' units, and earned Dr. 
    DeBakey the Legion of Merit in 1945.
        (5) After the war, Dr. DeBakey proposed the systematic medical 
    follow-up of veterans and recommended the creation of specialized 
    medical centers in different areas of the United States to treat 
    wounded military personnel returning from war, and from this 
    recommendation evolved the Veterans Affairs Medical Center System 
    and the establishment of the Commission on Veterans Medical 
    Problems of the National Research Council.
        (6) In 1948, Dr. DeBakey joined the Baylor University College 
    of Medicine, where he developed the first surgical residency 
    program in the city of Houston, and today, guided by Dr. DeBakey's 
    vision, the College is one of the most respected health science 
    centers in the Nation.
        (7) In 1953, Dr. DeBakey performed the first successful 
    procedures to treat patients who suffered aneurysms leading to 
    severe strokes, and he later developed a series of innovative 
    surgical techniques for the treatment of aneurysms enabling 
    thousands of lives to be saved in the years ahead.
        (8) In 1964, Dr. DeBakey triggered the most explosive era in 
    modern cardiac surgery, when he performed the first successful 
    coronary bypass, once again paving the way for surgeons worldwide 
    to offer hope to thousands of patients who might otherwise succumb 
    to heart disease.
        (9) Two years later, Dr. DeBakey made medical history again, 
    when he was the first to successfully use a partial artificial 
    heart to solve the problems of a patient who could not be weaned 
    from a heart-lung machine following open-heart surgery.
        (10) In 1968, Dr. DeBakey supervised the first successful 
    multi-organ transplant, in which a heart, both kidneys, and lung 
    were transplanted from a single donor into 4 separate recipients.
        (11) In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Dr. DeBakey 
    to the position of Chairman of the President's Commission on Heart 
    Disease, Cancer and Stroke, leading to the creation of Regional 
    Medical Programs established ``to encourage and assist in the 
    establishment of regional cooperative arrangements among medical 
    schools, research institutions, and hospitals, for research and 
    training''.
        (12) In the mid-1960s, Dr. DeBakey pioneered the field of 
    telemedicine with the first demonstration of open-heart surgery to 
    be transmitted overseas by satellite.
        (13) In 1969, Dr. DeBakey was elected the first President of 
    Baylor College of Medicine.
        (14) In 1969, President Lyndon B. Johnson bestowed on Dr. 
    DeBakey the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, and in 
    1985, President Ronald Reagan conferred on him the National Medal 
    of Science.
        (15) Working with NASA engineers, he refined existing 
    technology to create the DeBakey Ventricular Assist Device, one-
    tenth the size of current versions, which may eliminate the need 
    for heart transplantation in some patients.
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 presentation, on behalf of the 
Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design, to Michael Ellis 
DeBakey, M.D., in recognition of his many outstanding contributions to 
the Nation.
    (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.
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, and the cost of the gold medal.
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.
SEC. 5. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF SALE.
    (a) Authority To Use Fund Amounts.--There 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) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate 
bronze medals authorized under section 3 shall be deposited into the 
United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.