[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 133 (Wednesday, December 6, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H8758-H8761]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       CONGRESSIONAL TRIBUTE TO DR. NORMAN E. BORLAUG ACT OF 2006

  Mrs. BIGGERT. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
Senate bill (S. 2250) to award a congressional gold medal to Dr. Norman 
E. Borlaug.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                                S. 2250

       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 ``Congressional Tribute to Dr. 
     Norman E. Borlaug Act of 2006''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       Congress finds as follows:
       (1) Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, was born in Iowa where he grew 
     up on a family farm, and received his primary and secondary 
     education.
       (2) Dr. Borlaug attended the University of Minnesota where 
     he received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees and was also a star 
     NCAA wrestler.
       (3) For the past 20 years, Dr. Borlaug has lived in Texas 
     where he is a member of the faculty of Texas A&M University.
       (4) Dr. Borlaug also serves as President of the Sasakawa 
     Africa Association.
       (5) Dr. Borlaug's accomplishments in terms of bringing 
     radical change to world agriculture and uplifting humanity 
     are without parallel.
       (6) In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Dr. Borlaug 
     spent 20 years working in the poorest areas of rural Mexico. 
     It was there that Dr. Borlaug made his breakthrough 
     achievement in developing a strand of wheat that could 
     exponentially increase yields while actively resisting 
     disease.
       (7) With the active support of the governments involved, 
     Dr. Borlaug's ``green revolution'' uplifted hundreds of 
     thousands of the rural poor in Mexico and saved hundreds of 
     millions from famine and outright starvation in India and 
     Pakistan.
       (8) Dr. Borlaug's approach to wheat production next spread 
     throughout the Middle East. Soon thereafter his approach was 
     adapted to rice growing, increasing the number of lives Dr. 
     Borlaug has saved to more than a billion people.
       (9) In 1970, Dr. Borlaug received the Nobel Prize, the only 
     person working in agriculture to ever be so honored. Since 
     then he has received numerous honors and awards including the 
     Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Public Service Medal, the 
     National Academy of Sciences' highest honor, and the Rotary 
     International Award for World Understanding and Peace.
       (10) At age 91, Dr. Borlaug continues to work to alleviate 
     poverty and malnutrition. He currently serves as president of 
     Sasakawa Global 2000 Africa Project, which seeks to extend 
     the benefits of agricultural development to the 800,000,000 
     people still mired in poverty and malnutrition in sub-Saharan 
     Africa.
       (11) Dr. Borlaug continues to serve as Chairman of the 
     Council of Advisors of the World Food Prize, an organization 
     he created in 1986 to be the ``Nobel Prize for Food and 
     Agriculture'' and which presents a $250,000 prize each 
     October at a Ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa, to the Laureate 
     who has made an exceptional achievement similar to Dr. 
     Borlaug's breakthrough 40 years ago. In the almost 20 years 
     of its existence, the World Food Prize has honored Laureates 
     from Bangladesh, India, China, Mexico, Denmark, Sierra Leone, 
     Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
       (12) Dr. Borlaug has saved more lives than any other person 
     who has ever lived, and likely has saved more lives in the 
     Islamic world than any other human being in history.
       (13) Due to a lifetime of work that has led to the saving 
     and preservation of an untold amount of lives, Dr. Norman E. 
     Borlaug is deserving of America's highest civilian award: the 
     congressional gold medal.

     SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

       (a) Presentation Authorized.--The President Pro Tempore of 
     the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives 
     are authorized to make appropriate arrangements for the 
     presentation, on behalf of Congress, of a gold medal of 
     appropriate design, to Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, in recognition 
     of his enduring contributions to the United States and the 
     world.
       (b) Design and Striking.--For the purpose of the 
     presentation referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of 
     the Treasury (in this Act referred to as the ``Secretary'') 
     shall strike a 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 cost thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use 
     of machinery, and overhead expenses, and the cost of the gold 
     medal.

     SEC. 5. STATUS AS NATIONAL MEDALS.

       (a) National Medal.--The medal struck under this Act is a 
     national medal for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United 
     States Code.
       (b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of section 5134 of 
     title 31, United States Code, all duplicate medals struck 
     under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items.

     SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF SALE.

       (a) Authority To Use Fund Amounts.--There are authorized to 
     be charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise 
     Fund, such sums as may be necessary to pay for the cost of 
     the medals struck under this Act.
       (b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of 
     duplicate bronze medals under section 4 shall be deposited in 
     the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 
Frank) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Illinois.

[[Page H8759]]

                             General Leave

  Mrs. BIGGERT. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their 
remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material thereon.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Illinois?
  There was no objection.
  Mrs. BIGGERT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge Members to join in saluting an 
American hero who deserves to be recognized for his lifetime service to 
the world by passing S. 2250, the Congressional Tribute to Dr. Norman 
E. Borlaug Act of 2006.
  Senate 2250 directs the Speaker of the House and the President of the 
Senate to make appropriate arrangements to award a gold medal on behalf 
of Congress to Dr. Norman Borlaug in recognition of his enduring 
contributions in fighting hunger around the world. This legislation is 
identical to H.R. 4924, introduced by the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. 
Latham).
  Madam Speaker, Dr. Borlaug is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient of whom 
few have heard, a humanitarian responsible for mounting a global 
campaign against hunger that saved so many of the world's neediest 
people through agricultural science.
  In 1944, he took on the task of researching high-yield and disease-
resistant cereal grains. Through trial and error, Dr. Borlaug's efforts 
led to the development of varieties of wheat that completely altered 
production agriculture as it was then known in places like Pakistan, 
India and Mexico. The dwarf wheat variety allowed farmers to produce 
far more grain per acre than anyone could have predicted. This newfound 
bounty gave the world's poorest people access to food, ensuring 
children who otherwise would have been victims of malnutrition could 
thrive.
  Dr. Borlaug's landmark discoveries in agriculture led to what is 
called the ``Green Revolution.'' However, this modest man, born and 
raised in Cresco, Iowa, and educated in Minnesota, once said his 
accomplishments were only ``a temporary success in man's war against 
hunger and deprivation.''
  Madam Speaker, I recognize that many in Congress and throughout the 
country do not know about the progress we have made in production 
agriculture and are unaware of the countless contributions made by 
agricultural scientists such as Dr. Borlaug. However, his leadership 
has inspired so many others of our best and brightest students to 
pursue careers in agriculture sciences, and his work will live on in 
the lives of those who have been spared the misery of starvation.
  Madam Speaker, this is an honor long overdue, and I would urge 
immediate passage of this important legislation.
  Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time 
as I may consume.
  I congratulate the delegation from Iowa on bringing forward this very 
important symbol honoring a very great man, a man who has performed 
enormous service for humanity. It was first called to my attention by 
the gentleman from Iowa who is I believe now the dean of the majority 
of the Iowa delegation, and I am delighted to be the first to recognize 
him in that context, my very good friend and a very good leader.
  Madam Speaker, I yield as much time and as much corn as he may 
consume to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Boswell).
  (Mr. BOSWELL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. BOSWELL. Madam Speaker, thank you very much. I thank the 
gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) and the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) for yielding me this time.
  I would also like to thank my colleague and friend Congressman Latham 
for working on this and leading out on this very, very worthwhile 
tribute to Dr. Borlaug. He is from Iowa. We have known him for some 
time. As you might reflect, some of you, some years ago he was awarded 
the Nobel Peace Prize. It was for his work in agriculture. He started 
the Green Revolution. It was he that led out with the education, the 
expertise, the research to feed the world. He is credited with a 
billion people, saved their lives, fed the world--it has been quite a 
thing.
  I happened to be serving in the Iowa legislature at the time. I was 
appropriations chair, and it looked like the World Food Prize was going 
to disappear. We saw the opportunity to bring it to Iowa. A great 
benefactor, which Mr. Latham knows, too, Mr. John Ruan II, saw the need 
to keep this alive, and so put forth the effort in a hard time in our 
country, and we called it the agricultural crisis of those days, and 
was willing to put forth. We started out with a little public-private 
partnership working together with the understanding that the Ruan 
family, which they have done, would take it over and run with it. Well, 
they have.
  Dr. Borlaug was the first awardee of the World Food Prize 20 years 
ago in Iowa, and wow, what an appropriate person to receive this honor. 
It has been ongoing. Ambassador Quinn, a former ambassador at the State 
Department for years, serves with distinction as the administrator and 
CEO of the World Food Prize. It is something we are very proud of in 
the United States of America. We are very proud of it in our State of 
Iowa. It is a worthy thing.
  We think of our State of Iowa and the surrounding States as the food 
basket of our country, and so we have a World Food Prize. This is 
something that we ought to do to identify Dr. Borlaug. He is in his 
nineties. He is still very vital and vibrant and eloquent in his 
presentations, and the things he has done to reach out around the world 
with young people is most impressive. We have a great program and he is 
right in the middle of it and still providing a wonderful service, a 
wonderful example of what we would like to see coming from our country.
  Of course, we are very proud, Tom and I and all of us in the 
delegation, of our State. I might add that our new Members, Mr. Braley 
and Mr. Lobsack, very much if they were able to would be signed on to 
this resolution as well, and I wanted to make note of that.
  So I rise in support of Senate 2250, a tribute to Dr. Norman Borlaug. 
I would hope that every one of us would make this a unanimous thing, a 
great American, a great cause, and this is the highest recognition we 
can give, and we ought to do it.
  I am very proud of my fellow Iowan Dr. Borlaug. He is a great 
humanitarian who has been credited with saving one billion lives. His 
research and work changed production agriculture, as we know it today. 
Dr. Borlaug's life has been marked with many accomplishments; one such 
accomplishment was founding the World Food Prize, which is located in 
Des Moines, Iowa. The World Food Prize recognizes contributions by 
individuals who have worked to improve the quality, quantity and 
availability of the world food supply. I am proud to say the Prize 
celebrated its 20th anniversary this year.
  I would also like to recognize the Ruan family. When the World Food 
Prize was in trouble the Ruan family created a trust that would support 
the World Food Prize, patterned after the Nobel Peace Prize. This 
happened and I am pleased to report that the Ruan family, now under the 
leadership of John III, has fulfilled their pledge and the World Food 
Prize is a vital entity that we are very proud of.
  Mrs. BIGGERT. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to 
the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Latham), the sponsor of the identical 
legislation, H.R. 4924.
  Mr. LATHAM. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for recognizing me 
and Mr. Frank for his kind words about the great State of Iowa and I 
thank Mr. Boswell very much for the kind words, a great friend.
  I really would like to, first of all, thank the Speaker and the 
majority leader for allowing this bill to come to the floor today. It 
is extraordinarily important that we do recognize this great 
humanitarian.
  I would also like to thank my staff who has worked for weeks and 
weeks on this to get the support that is needed to bring a provision 
like this to the floor. It is very much appreciated.
  Dr. Norman Borlaug truly is an American superhero and really not that 
many people have heard of him because he has worked very quietly behind 
the scenes. He has done great things but he is someone who does not 
seek recognition.

[[Page H8760]]

  His campaign to save the lives of the world's neediest people through 
agricultural science deserves this very, very special recognition. How 
many lives has he saved? Dr. Borlaug's innovative leadership in plant 
breeding and agricultural production is credited with saving the lives 
of nearly one billion people. That is right, one billion people.
  It was back in 1944 when he was given the task, like Mrs. Biggert 
mentioned, of researching high-yield, disease-resistant cereal grains 
to help feed the neediest people, and through all of his efforts he was 
successful in developing varieties of wheat that completely altered 
agriculture as we know it in places like Pakistan, India, Mexico, 
Central America.
  The wheat variety he developed has allowed those farmers to produce 
far more grain than they ever thought possible in those regions. This 
bounty gave the poorest people of the world an opportunity to be fed 
and, most importantly, to ensure that their children were not suffering 
from malnutrition and starvation.
  He was the person that is credited with developing the Green 
Revolution, which changed agriculture, changed food production 
worldwide. He truly is a legendary figure with the agricultural 
community, and his name is well-known all across the world.
  I am very proud of the fact that Dr. Borlaug was born and raised in 
my district in Cresco, Iowa, and is known locally as a very modest man 
who once talked about his accomplishments, and again, as a quote, ``a 
temporary success in man's war against hunger and deprivation.''
  It is almost 40 years since the Nobel Peace Prize was given to Dr. 
Borlaug. Today, at age 92, he continues to work for improvement in 
mankind, and for this reason, I introduced H.R. 4924, a companion bill 
to the underlying measure, Senate 2250, which is a bill to award this 
great humanitarian, Dr. Norman Borlaug, the Congressional Gold Medal 
for his lifetime of service to the world.
  I know there are many in Congress who do not think about the progress 
we have made in production agriculture and are probably unaware of the 
countless contributions made by agricultural scientists like Dr. Norman 
Borlaug. Dr. Borlaug's leadership has inspired so many young people to 
enter agricultural sciences today, and his legacy will go on forever, 
with his forethought and his innovation.
  It really is his work and the work of future innovators that will 
live on in the lives who have been spared so much misery from 
starvation, and I respectfully urge my colleagues to support the 
underlying bill so that we can officially recognize this great 
humanitarian, Dr. Norman Borlaug.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, in this Congress I run out 
of Iowans before the other side does. So I will reserve the balance of 
my time.
  Mrs. BIGGERT. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to 
the gentleman also from Iowa (Mr. Leach), and he has been a great 
leader and we will miss him in Congress.

                              {time}  1100

  Mr. LEACH. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, and I want to thank 
very much the chairman to-be of the Financial Services Committee for 
his cooperation in bringing this forth.
  And I might say to the chairman to-be that I understand that you are 
thinking of a theme of being pro-business with an emphasis on fairness. 
I think that is a very appropriate theme, and I wish you every success. 
This Congress has a vested interest in seeing that the next Congress 
works well, so I wish you well.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. LEACH. I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. I just want to express my appreciation. 
Those words coming from someone I admire as much as I admire the 
gentleman from Iowa, they mean a great deal. I guess I would say I have 
never been less happy to see my side win.
  Mr. LEACH. I appreciate that very much. Thank you.
  I also want to thank Tom Latham. Tom is a wonderful friend, and he 
has pursued this particular measure for an American citizen that fits 
all of our definitions of a hero. That is particularly the perspective 
of all Iowans and I am sure all Americans when we think about Dr. 
Borlaug's career.
  I would only like to make one philosophical contribution to this 
debate, and that is that Dr. Borlaug has been awarded the Nobel Prize 
for the green revolution, the notion of pure science being used to 
expand the production of food crops of various kinds to make it 
possible for people in the world to have nourishment. But it is the 
same science that goes into expanding biological crops that allows 
crops to be used for energy, and so the same science that has produced 
the green revolution is also producing a black evolution, the idea that 
food can also be used for petroleum substitutes.
  We are today facing a challenge of judgment as well as a challenge of 
new biology, which Dr. Borlaug is also continuing to work in, that 
there may not be enough crops that go around for both food and fuel. 
But, fortunately, it is not exactly an either/or; that is, the same 
kernels of corn can be used for extracting ethanol as well as producing 
a food additive for cattle. But we are going to have to continue to 
develop new techniques to increase yields.
  That is what is happening in many great institutions in this country, 
such as Iowa State University, the University of Missouri, Purdue, 
Minnesota, et cetera, and we are very proud of that effort.
  Dr. Borlaug stands on the shoulders of prior scientists. One from 
Iowa who we are also very proud of Henry Wallace, actually is the 
father of the movement which Dr. Borlaug pursued. It was Henry 
Wallace's idea to establish a research facility in Mexico in the early 
1940s. That idea was brought by the then Vice-President to the 
Rockefeller Brothers Foundation who then chose Dr. Borlaug to head this 
research effort.
  We in Iowa are naturally proud of the role that Iowa scientists have 
played. That role has been played with the help, to some degree, of 
government and, to a greater degree, of private charity. So this is a 
very American initiative and a very American scientific product that 
this body is honoring today. And it is honoring the leader of it, a 
gentleman who began his young life as many noble gentlemen begin, as a 
wrestler. As a wrestler from Cresco, a great Iowa wrestling town, Dr. 
Borlaug competed in the scientific arena where he has achieved as great 
merit as any scientist in this country in the 20th century.
  We in Iowa are immensely proud, and I would like to thank Tom Latham, 
the leadership for allowing this bill to come forth, and the bipartisan 
spirit in which it is brought before us today.
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that the 
typically thoughtful intervention by the gentleman from Iowa who often 
brought to our deliberations more than was there before he did, it is 
just one reason why I will miss him. And as the gentleman knows, I have 
previously been an advocate for the country making great use of his 
services. I am torn now, Mr. Speaker, between expressing my hope that 
the administration will find a way to use his services for the country, 
and my fear that my saying so will make that less likely.
  Given that dilemma, I guess that is as much as I will say.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mrs. BIGGERT. I would recognize the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) 
for 2 minutes.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. I thank the gentlewoman for recognizing me and 
yielding time to me. And I particularly want to take an opportunity 
here to thank Congressman Jim Leach for his years of service to this 
country and this Congress, and to the thoughtful process that he has 
brought. There is a legacy left with my friend Jim Leach here as well 
as a legacy from Norman Borlaug, and all of us are justifiably proud to 
be from a State that can produce these kind of people, both Jim Leach 
and Norman Borlaug.
  I wanted to point out that the work that Norman Borlaug has done to 
alleviate starvation in the world has put to rest many of the 
Malthusian arguments that we have heard over the 40 or so years that I 
have paid attention in the debate and the deliberation in this country: 
What is the limitation on what we can do to raise food and fiber and 
energy now for people, not just in

[[Page H8761]]

America, but around the world. And I have had the privilege to travel 
into most of the continents and meet with the people that raise the 
food and the fiber, and, in our case, the energy in those places. And 
the fingerprints of Dr. Norman Borlaug are all over this planet, all 
over this globe, and on the dinner table of everyone with the 6-plus 
billion people that now inhabit this Earth. We don't know what that 
limitation might be for the population, but we know it is far greater 
because of Dr. Norman Borlaug.
  Mr. HOBSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me 
in supporting S. 2250 to pay tribute to Dr. Norman E. Borlaug for his 
life's work to feed the world's poor.
  It is because of Dr. Borlaug's success in developing high-yield and 
disease resistant cereal grains that billions of the world's poorest 
people have been fed.
  In 1944, Dr. Borlaug's work began when he and his research team were 
tasked by the Rockefeller Foundation to increase wheat production in 
Mexico. Through years of cross-breading thousands of wheat varieties, 
they were able to develop high-yield dwarf wheat that was resistant to 
diseases known to cause significant crop damage such as ``rust'' fungi. 
As a result, Mexico became self-sufficient in wheat production.
  Dr. Borlaug's findings came at a time when dire predictions were 
being made about the world's population growth and the possibility of 
mass starvation in poorer parts of the world. But, he continued to 
build on his findings from his work in Mexico and later worked with 
researchers in Pakistan and India to give farmers in those countries 
and regions high-yield dwarf wheat to increase their wheat production. 
The outreach was successful, and like Mexico, those countries also 
became self-sufficient in producing wheat.
  It is for this work that Dr. Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize 
in 1970. When the board was presenting him with the honor, they made 
the following statement on his humanitarian contributions: ``More than 
any other single person of this age, [he] has helped to provide bread 
for a hungry world. We have made this choice in the hope that providing 
bread will also give the world peace.''
  In today's world, it is easy to get caught up in our everyday lives 
and to overlook some of the landmark achievements that have made 
dramatic improvements in the lives of others. In this case, one 
individual improved the lives of billions of people by giving them 
access to life-sustaining nourishment.
  Mr. Speaker, Dr. Borlaug's contributions to help relieve the world's 
poorest of hunger have saved billions of lives, and have inspired a new 
generation of researchers in agriculture to continue the fight against 
hunger. It is for these reasons that I ask my colleagues to support 
this bill to honor Dr. Borlaug with the Congressional Gold Medal..
  Mrs. BIGGERT. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gutknecht). The question is on the 
motion offered by the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) that the 
House suspend the rules and pass the Senate bill, S. 2250.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds of those voting having 
responded in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the Senate 
bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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