[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2652 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.2652

                     One Hundred Fifteenth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

         Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday,
           the third day of January, two thousand and eighteen


                                 An Act


 
     To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Stephen Michael Gleason.

    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 ``Stephen Michael Gleason 
Congressional Gold Medal Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
    The Congress finds the following:
        (1) Stephen ``Steve'' Gleason was born March 19, 1977, in 
    Spokane, Washington to Mike and Gail Gleason.
        (2) Steve attended Gonzaga Preparatory School for high school 
    where he excelled as both a football and baseball player.
        (3) In 1995, Steve enrolled at Washington State University 
    where he was a 2-sport athlete for the baseball and football teams 
    and helped the Cougars football team advance to the 1997 Rose Bowl.
        (4) In 2000, Steve signed a professional football contract with 
    the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League as an 
    undrafted free agent but later joined the New Orleans Saints in 
    November of that same season.
        (5) Steve would go on to play 7 more seasons as a member of the 
    New Orleans Saints.
        (6) Steve will always be remembered for his blocked punt on 
    September 25, 2006, against the Atlanta Falcons, the night the 
    Louisiana Superdome reopened for the first time after Hurricane 
    Katrina in a game the Saints would win 23 to 3.
        (7) In January, 2011 Steve was diagnosed with amyotrophic 
    lateral sclerosis or ALS, considered a terminal neuro-muscular 
    disease.
        (8) Following his diagnosis, Steve, with the loving support of 
    his wife, Michel, began a mission to show that patients can not 
    only live but thrive after a diagnosis of ALS and established The 
    Gleason Initiative Foundation also known simply as ``Team 
    Gleason''.
        (9) At the time of his diagnosis, however, Steve said there 
    will be ``No White Flags'', which has become the mantra of Team 
    Gleason.
        (10) The Gleason Initiative Foundation helps provide 
    individuals with neuromuscular diseases or injuries with leading 
    edge technology, equipment and services, raises global awareness 
    about ALS to find solutions and an end to the disease, and has 
    helped hundreds of people with ALS experience life adventures they 
    never thought possible after their diagnosis.
        (11) Steve's story and mission have been told by the NFL 
    Network, ESPN, HBO, ABC, CBS, CNN, and many local media outlets, as 
    well as in a 2016 documentary titled ``Gleason'', which was 
    heralded at the Sundance Film Festival and premiered across the 
    country with Variety calling the production ``an emotional 
    powerhouse''. The documentary won several awards, including the 
    2016 Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best 
    Documentary.
        (12) Steve was named one of two Sports Illustrated's 
    Inspirations of the Year in 2014, has been a keynote speaker for 
    Microsoft and at two United Nations sponsored Social Innovation 
    Summits, and received the 2015 George S. Halas Courage Award, given 
    to a NFL player, coach or staff member who overcomes the most 
    adversity to succeed.
        (13) Steve helped advocate for the Steve Gleason Act of 2015 
    (Public Law 114-40; 129 Stat. 441), and the Steve Gleason Enduring 
    Voices Act of 2017, H.R. 2465, 115th Congress (2017), which 
    permanently ensures people living with diseases such ALS have 
    access to speech generating devices regardless of their setting, 
    whether at home or a healthcare institution.
        (14) In 2014, Steve and Team Gleason hosted a global summit to 
    bring together researchers, patients, caregivers, and all ALS 
    stakeholders to create a plan to ultimately end ALS. That summit 
    resulted in the single largest coordinated and collaborative ALS 
    research project in the world, Answer ALS, which brings together 
    nearly two dozen research institutions, 1,000 patients and 
    20,000,000,000,000 data points that are important to the project 
    and that will define the unknown pathways that will lead to 
    treatments or finally a cure.
        (15) In 2015, Steve and Microsoft worked together to create a 
    method for people who are completely paralyzed to navigate their 
    power wheelchairs with their eyes. Today, Steve, Microsoft and all 
    wheelchair manufacturers are working collaboratively to make it 
    widely available to all who need this technology. In addition, 
    Microsoft has also made eye tracking technology part of all Windows 
    10 products across the globe.
        (16) In 2011, 10 months after his diagnosis, Steve and Michel 
    made their most significant accomplishment, becoming parents to 
    their son Rivers.
        (17) Steve and Michel Gleason continue to fight to find a 
    solution for ALS so they can share many years together and as 
    parents to Rivers.
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.
    (a) Award Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of Representatives 
and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make appropriate 
arrangements for the award, on behalf of the Congress, of a single gold 
medal of appropriate design to Stephen Michael Gleason.
    (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 the gold medal with 
suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the 
Secretary.
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.
    Under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the 
Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal 
struck under section 3, at a price sufficient to cover the costs of the 
medals, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and 
overhead expenses.
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS.
    Medals struck pursuant to this Act are national medals for purposes 
of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.