1.The Congress finds that—
(1)Dr. Muhammad Yunus is recognized in the
United States and throughout the world as a leading figure in the fight against
poverty and the effort to promote economic and social change;
(2)Muhammad Yunus is the recognized developer
of the concept of microcredit, and Grameen Bank, which he founded, has created
a model of lending that has been emulated across the globe;
(3)Muhammad Yunus launched this global
movement to create economic and social development from below, beginning in
1976, with a loan of $27 from his own pocket to 42 crafts persons in a small
village in Bangladesh;
(4)Muhammad Yunus has demonstrated the
life-changing potential of extending very small loans (at competitive interest
rates) to the very poor and the economic feasibility of microcredit and other
microfinance and microenterprise practices and services;
(5)Dr. Yunus's work has had a particularly
strong impact on improving the economic prospects of women, and on their
families, as over 95 percent of microcredit borrowers are women;
(6)Dr. Yunus has pioneered a movement with the
potential to assist a significant number of the more than 1,400,000,000 people,
mostly women and children, who live on less than $1.25 a day, and the
2,600,000,000 people who live on less than $2 a day, and which has already
reached 155,000,000, by one estimate;
(7)there are now an estimated 24,000,000
microenterprises in the United States accounting for approximately 18 percent
of private (nonfarm) employment and 87 percent of all business in the United
States, and the Small Business Administration has made over $318,000,000 in
microloans to entrepreneurs since 1992;
(8)Dr. Yunus, along with the Grameen Bank, was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his efforts to promote economic and
social opportunity and out of recognition that lasting peace cannot be achieved
unless large population groups find the means, such as microcredit, to break
out of poverty; and
(9)the microcredit ideas developed and put
into practice by Muhammad Yunus, along with other bold initiatives, can make a
historical breakthrough in the fight against poverty.
2.
(a)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 Dr. Muhammad Yunus, in recognition of his many enduring contributions
to the fight against global poverty.
(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.
3.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.
4.
(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 sections 5134 and 5136 of
title 31, United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be
considered to be numismatic items.
5.Authority to use fund amounts; proceeds of
sale
(a)Authority To use fund amountsThere are 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 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