[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 544 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 544

To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide for penalties for the 
   sale of any Purple Heart awarded to a member of the Armed Forces.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 13, 2017

     Mr. Cook (for himself, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Ms. Judy Chu of 
    California, Ms. Jenkins of Kansas, Mr. Poliquin, and Mr. Dunn) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide for penalties for the 
   sale of any Purple Heart awarded to a member of the Armed Forces.

    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 ``Private Corrado Piccoli Purple Heart 
Preservation Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Purple Heart medal solemnly recognizes the great 
        and sometimes ultimate sacrifice of American servicemembers 
        like Private Corrado Piccoli.
            (2) The Purple Heart medal holds a place of honor as the 
        national symbol of this sacrifice and deserves special 
        protections.

SEC. 3. PENALTY FOR SALE OF PURPLE HEARTS AWARDED TO MEMBERS OF THE 
              ARMED FORCES.

    Subsection (a) of section 704 of title 18, United States Code, is 
amended to read as follows:
    ``(a) In General.--
            ``(1) Penalty.--Whoever knowingly purchases, attempts to 
        purchase, solicits for purchase, mails, ships, imports, 
        exports, produces blank certificates of receipt for, 
        manufactures, sells, attempts to sell, advertises for sale, 
        trades, barters, or exchanges for anything of value any 
        decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the armed forces 
        of the United States, or any of the service medals or badges 
        awarded to the members of such forces, or the ribbon, button, 
        or rosette of any such badge, decoration or medal, or any 
        colorable imitation thereof, except when authorized under 
        regulations made pursuant to law, shall be fined under this 
        title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
            ``(2) Limitation on regulations.--Regulations referred to 
        in paragraph (1) may not authorize the sale of any Purple Heart 
        awarded to a member of the armed forces or former member of the 
        armed forces by the Secretary of the military department 
        concerned.''.
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