[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4354 Introduced in House (IH)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4354

 To affirm the power of the President to revoke the Presidential Medal 
of Freedom awarded to Bill Cosby and to provide for criminal penalties 
   for anyone who wears or publicly displays a Presidential Medal of 
                     Freedom that has been revoked.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 8, 2016

Mr. Gosar (for himself, Mr. Babin, Mrs. Black, Mr. DeSantis, Mr. Jones, 
   Mr. Miller of Florida, Mr. Rigell, Mrs. Walorski, Mr. Harris, Mr. 
 Burgess, Mr. Trott, Mr. Salmon, Ms. Speier, Mr. Palazzo, Ms. McSally, 
Mr. Franks of Arizona, and Mr. Huffman) introduced the following bill; 
 which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition 
to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
  of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
                               concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To affirm the power of the President to revoke the Presidential Medal 
of Freedom awarded to Bill Cosby and to provide for criminal penalties 
   for anyone who wears or publicly displays a Presidential Medal of 
                     Freedom that has been revoked.

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

SECTION 1. SENSE OF CONGRESS THAT THE PRESIDENT SHOULD REVOKE THE 
              PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM AWARDED TO BILL COSBY.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) Established in 1963 and bestowed by the President of 
        the United States, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is the 
        highest civilian honor of our Nation.
            (2) The Presidential Medal of Freedom is awarded to 
        recipients for ``especially meritorious contributions to the 
        security or national interests of the United States, to world 
        peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private 
        endeavors''.
            (3) William Henry ``Bill'' Cosby, Jr. (in this subsection 
        referred to as ``Cosby''), received the Presidential Medal of 
        Freedom in 2002.
            (4) In recent months, more than 50 women have come forward 
        and conveyed disturbing accounts of sexual assault and drugging 
        by Cosby.
            (5) The statute of limitations has expired for many of 
        these incidents, and as a result, the majority of these women 
        will never get their day in court.
            (6) According to the New York Daily News, court documents 
        obtained by the Associated Press on Monday, July 7, 2015, 
        revealed that ``Cosby admitted under oath that he bought 
        Quaaludes to dope the women he wanted to grope--and slipped the 
        sedative to at least one lady and `other people'''.
            (7) During a deposition on September 29, 2005, a lawyer, 
        Dolores Troiani, asked Cosby, ``When you got the Quaaludes, was 
        it in your mind that you were going to use these Quaaludes for 
        young women that you wanted to have sex with?'' and Cosby 
        answered ``Yes.''.
            (8) On December 30, 2015, prosecutors from Montgomery 
        County, Pennsylvania, charged Cosby with three counts of felony 
        aggravated indecent assault for allegedly drugging and sexually 
        assaulting a young woman in 2004.
            (9) The prosecutors noted in an affidavit of probable cause 
        that ``Cosby obtained seven separate prescriptions for 
        Quaaludes that he did not personally ingest, nor ever intended 
        to personally ingest'' and that ``the victim's substantially 
        impaired condition prevented her ability to consent, or even 
        defend herself from Cosby's sexual assault''.
            (10) Cosby has admitted to drugging women with the 
        intention to satisfy his sexual desires, and, therefore, the 
        Federal Government should not recognize Cosby with an honor 
        like the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that the 
President should revoke the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to 
William Henry ``Bill'' Cosby, Jr.

SEC. 2. CRIMINAL PENALTY FOR WEARING OR DISPLAYING A REVOKED 
              PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 33 of title 18, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 717. Revoked Presidential Medal of Freedom
    ``Whoever, with the intent to defraud any person, wears or publicly 
displays a Presidential Medal of Freedom that has been declared to be 
revoked by the President shall be fined under this title or imprisoned 
for not more than one year, or both.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of 
chapter 33 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting 
after the item relating to section 716 the following:

``717. Revoked Presidential Medal of Freedom.''.
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