[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1863 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1863

 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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 27, 2015

   Mr. Kirk introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
    referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 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 fought for and secured the right to higher 
        education and mainstream education integration for millions of 
        people with disabilities in the United States;
            (3) many of the architectural accessibility standards and 
        laws of the United States trace back directly to innovations 
        created by Nugent;
            (4) while at the University of Illinois, Nugent oversaw the 
        development of adaptive sports programs accommodating athletes 
        in wheelchairs;
            (5) Nugent founded the first higher educational program for 
        wounded and disabled soldiers in the world after World War II;
            (6) in the years after World War II, Nugent confronted the 
        bias of the general public in his efforts to bring students 
        with disabilities into the mainstream of college campuses and 
        society;
            (7) Nugent disproved many people in the medical community 
        who 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; and
            (8) 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 (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. 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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