[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 37 (Friday, March 27, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1685]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 ALLOWING SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY GREATER DISCRETION WITH REGARD TO 
                              INSCRIPTIONS

  Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee 
on Banking and Financial Services be discharged from further 
consideration of the bill, (H.R. 3301) to amend chapter 51 of title 31, 
United States Code, to allow the Secretary of the Treasury greater 
discretion with regard to the placement of the required inscriptions on 
quarter dollars issued under the 50 States Commemorative Coin Program, 
and ask its immediate consideration in the House.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Delaware?
  Mr. WEYGAND. Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, I do so for 
the purpose of an explanation from the sponsor of the bill and a 
description of the bill.
  Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. WEYGAND. I yield to the gentleman from Delaware.
  Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Rhode Island for 
yielding. This will be very brief.
  At the request of the administration, this bill was introduced to 
authorize the Secretary of the Treasury and the Mint to move statutory 
wording on the State quarters from one place to another as required by 
design considerations.
  You will recall, we are going to have 50 State quarter bills in the 
next 10 years. No statutory wording such as ``In God we trust'' will be 
removed from the coins or any other statutory wording that is on the 
coins now. The bill simply grants more freedom for individual States 
that propose designs of their own choice.
  It is a noncontroversial, technical bill that has been discussed with 
the minority. You have no objection. It complements the 50 States 
Commemorative Coin Program Act of 1997 that was passed and signed into 
law last year.
  Mr. WEYGAND. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Delaware?
  There was no objection.
  The Clerk read the bill, as follows:

                               H.R. 3301

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled, That 
     section 5112(l)(1) of title 31, United States Code, is 
     amended by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
       ``(C) Flexibility with regard to placement of 
     inscriptions.--Notwithstanding subsection (d)(1), the 
     Secretary may select a design for quarter dollars issued 
     during the 10-year period referred to in subparagraph (A) in 
     which--
       ``(i) the inscription described in the 2d sentence of 
     subsection (d)(1) appears on the reverse side of any such 
     quarter dollars; and
       ``(ii) any inscription described in the 3d sentence of 
     subsection (d)(1) or the designation of the value of the coin 
     appears on the obverse side of any such quarter dollars.''.

  The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, was read 
the third time, and passed, and a motion to reconsider was laid on the 
table.

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