[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3223 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3223

 To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Timothy Nugent, in recognition 
of his pioneering work on behalf of people with disabilities, including 
                           disabled veterans.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 27, 2015

 Mr. Rodney Davis of Illinois introduced the following bill; which was 
            referred to the Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Timothy Nugent, in recognition 
of his pioneering work on behalf of people with disabilities, including 
                           disabled veterans.

    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 ``Timothy Nugent Congressional Gold 
Medal Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) Timothy Nugent is considered the ``Father of 
        Accessibility'' and the ``Godfather of Rehabilitation 
        Education'' on college campuses and has been a relentless 
        innovator and advocate for disabled people in the United 
        States;
            (2) Nugent founded the first higher educational program for 
        wounded and disabled soldiers in the world after World War II 
        at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
            (3) under the leadership of Nugent, the University of 
        Illinois became a pioneer of architectural access, adding curb 
        cuts and wheelchair-accessible bus routes that Nugent himself 
        designed;
            (4) when ramps were needed in the place of steps, Nugent 
        built the first ramps in his garage;
            (5) even today, many of the architectural accessibility 
        standards and laws of the United States trace back directly to 
        innovations created by Nugent;
            (6) while at the University of Illinois, Nugent also 
        oversaw the development of adaptive sports programs 
        accommodating athletes in wheelchairs;
            (7) in the years after World War II, Nugent confronted the 
        pervasive ableism of the general public in his efforts to bring 
        students with disabilities into the mainstream of college 
        campuses and society;
            (8) sadly, many people believed that people in wheelchairs 
        did not belong on college campuses, studying alongside students 
        without limitations in mobility;
            (9) many people in the medical community, whom Nugent 
        proved wrong, believed that rehabilitation and sporting 
        activities were harmful to individuals with such severe 
        disabilities or that education was not necessary because of 
        their belief that the lifespan of persons with spinal cord 
        injuries would be too short for them to benefit from college 
        degrees;
            (10) Nugent fought back and secured the right to higher 
        education and mainstream educational integration for millions 
        of people with disabilities in the United States; and
            (11) Nugent would be the first person awarded a 
        Congressional Gold Medal for work on behalf of persons with 
        disabilities.

SEC. 3. 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 Timothy Nugent, in 
recognition of his pioneering work on behalf of people with 
disabilities, including disabled veterans.
    (b) Design and Striking.--For the purposes of the award 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.

    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.

SEC. 5. NATIONAL MEDALS.

    Medals struck pursuant to this Act are national medals for the 
purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.
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