[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 148 (Tuesday, October 2, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H11078-H11081]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   AWARDING A CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL TO MICHAEL ELLIS DeBAKEY, M.D.

  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
pass the Senate bill (S. 474) to award a congressional gold medal to 
Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D.
  The Clerk read the title of the Senate bill.
  The text of the Senate bill is as follows:

                                 S. 474

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

       The Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D., was born on September 7, 
     1908, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Shaker and Raheeja 
     DeBakey.
       (2) Dr. DeBakey, at the age of 23 and still a medical 
     student, reported a major invention, a roller pump for blood 
     transfusions, which later became a major component of the 
     heart-lung machine used in the first successful open-heart 
     operation.
       (3) Even though Dr. DeBakey had already achieved a national 
     reputation as an authority on vascular disease and had a 
     promising career as a surgeon and teacher, he volunteered for 
     military service during World War II, joining the Surgeon 
     General's staff and rising to the rank of Colonel and Chief 
     of the Surgical Consultants Division.
       (4) As a result of this first-hand knowledge of military 
     service, Dr. DeBakey made numerous recommendations for the 
     proper staged management of war wounds, which led to the 
     development of mobile army surgical hospitals or ``MASH'' 
     units, and earned Dr. DeBakey the Legion of Merit in 1945.
       (5) After the war, Dr. DeBakey proposed the systematic 
     medical follow-up of veterans and recommended the creation of 
     specialized medical centers in different areas of the United 
     States to treat wounded military personnel returning from 
     war, and from this recommendation evolved the Veterans 
     Affairs Medical Center System and the establishment of the 
     Commission on Veterans Medical Problems of the National 
     Research Council.
       (6) In 1948, Dr. DeBakey joined the Baylor University 
     College of Medicine, where he developed the first surgical 
     residency program in the city of Houston, and today, guided 
     by Dr. DeBakey's vision, the College is one of the most 
     respected health science centers in the Nation.
       (7) In 1953, Dr. DeBakey performed the first successful 
     procedures to treat patients who suffered aneurysms leading 
     to severe strokes, and he later developed a series of 
     innovative surgical techniques for the treatment of aneurysms 
     enabling thousands of lives to be saved in the years ahead.
       (8) In 1964, Dr. DeBakey triggered the most explosive era 
     in modern cardiac surgery, when he performed the first 
     successful coronary bypass, once again paving the way for 
     surgeons worldwide to offer hope to thousands of patients who 
     might otherwise succumb to heart disease.
       (9) Two years later, Dr. DeBakey made medical history 
     again, when he was the first to successfully use a partial 
     artificial heart to solve the problems of a patient who could 
     not be weaned from a heart-lung machine following open-heart 
     surgery.
       (10) In 1968, Dr. DeBakey supervised the first successful 
     multi-organ transplant, in which a heart, both kidneys, and 
     lung were transplanted from a single donor into 4 separate 
     recipients.
       (11) In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Dr. 
     DeBakey to the position of Chairman of the President's 
     Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke, leading to 
     the creation of Regional Medical Programs established ``to 
     encourage and assist in the establishment of regional 
     cooperative arrangements among medical schools, research 
     institutions, and hospitals, for research and training''.
       (12) In the mid-1960s, Dr. DeBakey pioneered the field of 
     telemedicine with the first demonstration of open-heart 
     surgery to be transmitted overseas by satellite.
       (13) In 1969, Dr. DeBakey was elected the first President 
     of Baylor College of Medicine.
       (14) In 1969, President Lyndon B. Johnson bestowed on Dr. 
     DeBakey the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, 
     and in 1985, President Ronald Reagan conferred on him the 
     National Medal of Science.
       (15) Working with NASA engineers, he refined existing 
     technology to create the DeBakey Ventricular Assist Device, 
     one-tenth the size of current versions, which may eliminate 
     the need for heart transplantation in some patients.

     SEC. 2. 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 Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D., in recognition of his 
     many outstanding contributions to the Nation.
       (b) Design and Striking.--For purposes of the presentation 
     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. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

       The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of 
     the gold medal struck pursuant to section 2 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. 4. STATUS OF MEDALS.

       (a) National Medals.--The medals struck pursuant to this 
     Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 
     31, United States Code.
       (b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of sections 5134 and 
     5136 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck under 
     this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items.

     SEC. 5. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF SALE.

       (a) Authority To Use Fund Amounts.--There is authorized to 
     be charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise 
     Fund such amounts as may be necessary to pay for the costs of 
     the medals struck pursuant to this Act.
       (b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of 
     duplicate bronze medals authorized under section 3 shall be 
     deposited into the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Al Green) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Al Green).


                             General Leave

  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend 
their remarks and to include extraneous material on S. 474.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, today we take the final steps in the legislative process 
to accord the Honorable Dr. Michael E. DeBakey a Congressional Gold 
Medal.
  While I am proud to be here at the revelation of this process while 
we are now revealing all that has taken place and all that has happened 
for us to have this great opportunity, I must confess that I was not 
there at the genesis of the process. But, Mr. Speaker, there is one 
person who has been a constant throughout the entirety of this process, 
and that one person, Mr. Speaker, is the Honorable Kay Bailey 
Hutchison, Senator from the great State of Texas. She has been 
consistent in that she has annually filed this bill to get it to this 
point, and she has been persistent in that she has insisted that we 
work together so as to cause the Honorable Dr. Michael E. DeBakey to 
have this opportunity.
  Mr. Speaker, while I am the original sponsor of the House bill, H.R. 
1154, to accord this Congressional Gold Medal, there are many other 
persons who must be thanked. I want to thank my chairman of the 
Financial Services Committee, the Honorable Barney

[[Page H11079]]

Frank, for the outstanding job that he has done to help get this piece 
of legislation, the bill that has already passed, out of the committee 
and to the floor. But he has also done an outstanding job in helping us 
to get the Senate bill to the floor, and for this we thank him.
  I also would like to thank my colleagues Congressman Michael Burgess 
and Congressman John Culberson for the outstanding job that the two of 
them jointly performed in getting the necessary signatures to get this 
bill to the floor.

                              {time}  1030

  That would be the bill in the House, not the Senate bill. But I want 
to thank them for what they did because it took getting the House bill 
through to get us to the point where we can now get the Senate bill 
passed, such that we can accord the Gold Medal.
  I would like to thank the entire Texas delegation. They have all 
thought highly of Dr. DeBakey, and they have worked with us to make 
sure that we were in a position to get this done.
  We want to thank the 313 cosponsors of this legislation. Literally, 
we have gone to the floor of the House and we have talked to persons 
who agreed that the Honorable Dr. Michael E. DeBakey should be accorded 
this preeminent privilege and this great honor.
  I want to thank the House leadership because the leadership made it 
possible for the fellowship to be in this position today. And again, we 
thank Senator Hutchison and all of the Members of the Senate who have 
helped us with this process.
  Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Gold Medal has 535 judges, 100 in the 
Senate, 435 in the House, because each Member of the House and each 
Member of the Senate has a vote on the Congressional Gold Medal. And I 
am honored to say that, while we must receive 290 votes in the House 
and 67 votes in the Senate, we have exceeded the required numbers in 
both the House and the Senate. People were excited about the 
opportunity to accord the Honorable Dr. Michael E. DeBakey a 
Congressional Gold Medal.
  What is a Congressional Gold Medal? It is the Nation's highest and 
most distinguished civilian award. It was originally awarded to 
military leaders for their service and later became a civilian medal. 
It is the congressional equivalent of the Presidential Medal of 
Freedom. Each medal is unique. It is designed by the U.S. Mint and is 
duplicated in bronze for sale.
  The Congressional Gold Medal has been awarded approximately 134 times 
to approximately 300 individuals. Some notable recipients include our 
first President, George Washington; General Andrew Jackson; the Wright 
brothers; Thomas Edison; Sam Rayburn, former Speaker of this august 
body; Sir Winston Churchill; Robert Kennedy; Lady Bird Johnson; Mother 
Teresa of India; Nelson Mandela; Rosa Parks; Pope John Paul, II; the 
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King; and the last 
recipients were the Tuskegee Airmen. I was honored to be present in the 
rotunda when they received their Congressional Gold Medal in April of 
2006.
  Mr. Speaker, I think that Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, the oldest of five 
children, born of parents of Lebanese descent, has truly been an 
outstanding American. He was born in Louisiana in Lake Charles, 
performed his residency at Charity Hospital. Mr. Speaker, I am from 
Louisiana. I was born in New Orleans. I was born in Charity Hospital. 
And while it may be a bit of wishful thinking, there may be the 
possibility, or the possibility may exist, that I am a DeBakey baby and 
that he was performing his residency at Charity Hospital at the time 
that I was born.
  Mr. Speaker, he was on the faculty of the Baylor College of Medicine 
from 1948 to 1993, where he chaired the Department of Surgery. He 
served as President and Chancellor of the Baylor College of Medicine.
  And Mr. Speaker, I say from the bottom of my heart that I thank God 
for the Honorable Dr. Michael E. DeBakey. He has earned the right to 
receive a Congressional Gold Medal. He served his country in World War 
II, and he volunteered to perform this service. He helped to develop, 
while in the military, the mobile army surgical hospital, we know it as 
the ``MASH'' units. And Mr. Speaker, there is a TV program and a movie 
that was made popular because of the MASH units that were developed 
because of the Honorable Michael E. DeBakey. In fact, it may be said 
that, but for the Honorable Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, there might not be 
a MASH television series.
  He helped to establish the VA Hospitals. He helped to establish the 
current Veterans Affairs medical system. He was one of the first to 
successfully perform a coronary bypass. He established the field of 
surgery for strokes. He led the movement to establish the National 
Library of Medicine. He performed the historic transplantation 
procedure, with a team of surgeons of course. He was the first person 
to successfully use a partial artificial heart to help patients who 
could not be weaned from the heart-lung machine following heart 
surgery.
  He pioneered the field of telemedicine, with the first demonstration 
of open heart surgery transmitted overseas via satellite. He invented 
the Dacron tube, using his wife's sewing machine and fabric he 
purchased from a store in Houston, Texas. This, Mr. Speaker, was the 
first artificial artery.
  He was a leader in the development of the artificial heart. He 
operated on more than 60,000 patients in Houston. He has published over 
1,600 articles. He helped to establish health care systems around the 
world in Jordan, Morocco, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, to name a few 
countries.
  He became one of the persons to work at the Baylor School of 
Medicine, to the extent that Baylor has recognized his unprecedented 
achievements by naming the DeBakey Heart Center in his honor. And also, 
the Baylor College of Medicine has named the Michael E. DeBakey 
Department of Surgery in his honor.
  Dr. DeBakey is a great citizen, Mr. Speaker, not only of the United 
States but also of the world. He is a great humanitarian; he has helped 
rich and poor alike. If we did not have the Congressional Gold Medal, 
Mr. Speaker, we would have to create one for the Honorable Dr. Michael 
E. DeBakey.
  On his 99th birthday, we called him to let him know that we had 
completed the process in the House in terms of passing the House bill 
so that we can move forward to this bill, and his comment was, ``I am 
so grateful that I am a citizen of the United States.'' Mr. Speaker, I 
believe that his life stands for the proposition that one person can 
not only impact the world, but can change the world for the good of 
all.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to yield such 
time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas, one of the original 
cosponsors of this bill, Mr. Culberson.
  Mr. CULBERSON. Thank you, Dr. Burgess.
  I want to thank my good friend, Al Green, my good friend and 
colleague, Michael Burgess, Senator Hutchison, who has been a leader in 
this effort, and the chairman of the Financial Services Committee as 
well in bringing this important legislation to the floor. Chairman 
Frank has been extraordinarily helpful.
  I won't be long, but I want to point out that Dr. Michael E. DeBakey 
is one of those singular geniuses whose name will truly be remembered 
in a thousand years when our work here today is long forgotten. What we 
do here we hope will impact the lives of our children and fellow 
Americans in ways that will improve their lives, and we all do our best 
every day to make that contribution, but Dr. Michael DeBakey has 
genuinely made contributions that will last for many, many generations 
and will continue to save lives for many generations.
  Dr. DeBakey is an inventive genius. He is not only a physician, he is 
an engineer, an innovator, a surgeon, an educator, and the impact that 
he has had on medicine truly cannot be overstated.
  Many of the medical procedures we rely on today would truly not be 
available were it not for his groundbreaking efforts. He is responsible 
for pioneering four different types of operations for the treatment of 
aneurysms in the heart, and the first physician to successfully perform 
bypass surgery.
  Dr. Michael DeBakey's contributions are too numerous to mention here. 
We have had the privilege of bringing the House bill to the floor here 
within the last couple of weeks, and are very

[[Page H11080]]

pleased that Chairman Frank has brought Senator Hutchison's bill to the 
floor so that we can speed this important legislation to the 
President's desk. Dr. DeBakey is now 99 years old, still in good 
health, still consulting as a physician in medical cases. The man is 
truly a legend. And it is my singular privilege to be here today to 
join with my colleagues, Al Green, Dr. Burgess and Senator Hutchison, 
in recognizing and honoring this great, good man for his magnificent 
contributions to the improvement of the health of all humanity in 
awarding Dr. Michael DeBakey the Congressional Gold Medal.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I am now pleased to yield such time as he 
may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe).
  Mr. POE. Thank you, Dr. Burgess. And thank you, Judge Green, for 
sponsoring this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, Dr. Michael DeBakey's life motto is ``strive for nothing 
less than excellence,'' and he has achieved excellence in all of his 99 
years.
  He will be 100 years old next year, and he has made remarkable and 
valuable contributions to surgery and to the entire world in the area 
of heart surgery.
  When he was only 23 years old, Dr. DeBakey reported the roller pump 
for blood transfusions, which was later used in the heart-lung machine 
used in the first successful open heart surgery. When he volunteered 
for the Army during World War II, his experience in the Surgeon 
General's staff taught him that more needed to be done for veterans and 
for the wounded that are on the battlefield. He recommended massive 
changes in the management of war wounds. And as Judge Green mentioned, 
he invented the mobile army surgical hospital, or the MASH units, as 
Americans know them. We have all watched MASH on television and its 
satire, but MASH has served a tremendous purpose for those who are 
wounded on the battlefield.
  Once the MASH units came into play, Americans wounded during battle 
at war and were taken to these units, the survival rate increased 
tremendously. In previous wars when Americans were wounded, most of 
them died. Now, when they're wounded and taken to a MASH unit, most of 
them survive.
  He created the medical follow-ups for veterans. We call that the 
Veterans Affairs Medical Center. And in 1948, Dr. DeBakey joined the 
Baylor University College of Medicine staff. He launched the first 
surgical residency program in Houston, and now Baylor Medical School is 
one of the Nation's most respected health science centers in the world.
  He developed innovative treatments for aneurysms, performed the first 
successful coronary bypass, successfully used a partial artificial 
heart to help a patient wean off a heart-lung machine after open heart 
surgery, and he supervised the first successful multiorgan transplant.
  Dr. DeBakey could be, Mr. Speaker, the finest heart surgeon that has 
ever lived in the world. He deserves this Nation's greatest honor. And 
we're forever grateful for his contributions, his vision, his 
leadership and his big heart for others.
  Winston Churchill said, ``We live by what we get, but we judge our 
life by what we give.'' Dr. DeBakey has given hearts to thousands of 
people throughout the world.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
  Mr. Speaker, I do want to thank my friends who have come to the floor 
to help us today honor Dr. Michael DeBakey. I do want to thank Al Green 
for his persistence in getting this bill to the floor. It has been a 
long time in the making. And obviously I want to thank our senior 
Senator from Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and certainly thank Chairman 
Frank for allowing the Senate bill to come through the floor procedure 
so that we may hasten this floor process for Dr. DeBakey. As has been 
mentioned here several times this morning, Dr. DeBakey is 99 years old 
and certainly deserving of this honor, and we need to get it to him 
with all haste.
  Dr. DeBakey is the father of cardiovascular surgery in our country. 
And I do encourage my colleagues to vote in favor of S. 474, a bill to 
designate the Congressional Gold Medal for the famed Houston heart 
surgeon.

                              {time}  1045

  This bill has been very important to me, as one of the physicians in 
the House of Representatives, to be able today to come to the floor and 
talk about how Dr. DeBakey changed the face of medicine so 
significantly forever in this country. As a fellow physician, Dr. 
DeBakey's work on medical advancements is legendary. His dedication to 
healing those around him came not only from his talents as a physician 
but his ongoing commitment to the larger medical community. His motto, 
as we heard others mention it today, was ``strive for nothing less than 
excellence.'' Boy, every Member of this House could adopt that as one 
of our mottos and do better by the country for it.
  Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the education and 
entrepreneurial spirit that made him worthy of the Nation's highest 
expression of appreciation for distinguished achievements and 
contributions. Dr. DeBakey received his bachelor's and M.D. degree from 
Tulane University in New Orleans, as we have already heard mentioned. 
He delivered Al Green in medical school.
  But probably more importantly, while in medical school, he developed 
the roller pump, later to become the major component in the heart-lung 
machine that is used in open heart surgery routinely today. This was a 
groundbreaking achievement, Mr. Speaker. Every pump to pump the heart, 
to take over the work of the heart artificially, prior to that time, 
had worked on a mechanical piston-type arrangement. Dr. DeBakey 
envisioned the roller pump which preserved the structure of red blood 
cells as they took their course through the pump and allowed this pump 
to, in fact, become part and parcel with something that we now just all 
accept as part of cardiovascular surgery. It was truly a visionary 
change. Again, he popularized that while he was in medical school in 
the 1930s.
  Now, Dr. DeBakey completed his internship at Charity Hospital, one of 
the venerable institutions of learning in this country. Many of my 
professors at Parkman Hospital trained at Charity Hospital. Charity 
Hospital is no longer with us because of the ravages of Hurricane 
Katrina 2 years ago. After Dr. DeBakey completed his internship at 
Charity, he went on to the University of Strasbourg in France and the 
University of Heidelberg in Germany.
  He volunteered for service in World War II and was subsequently named 
director of the surgical consultants division of the U.S. Surgeon 
General's Office. His work during that war led to the development of 
what we have already heard described today as the Mobile Army Surgical 
Hospital, the so-called MASH unit. Mr. Green has already eloquently 
pointed out that we wouldn't have the MASH units today. More 
importantly, we wouldn't have those forward surgical teams that go into 
the combat areas and provide vital care to our soldiers in that first 
golden hour after injury, all of that pioneered by Dr. DeBakey well 
over two generations ago.
  He helped establish the specialized medical and surgical center 
system for treating military personnel returning home from war, which 
we now know as the Veterans Administration Medical Center. But it was 
at Methodist Hospital in Houston where Dr. DeBakey performed many of 
his groundbreaking surgeries, including the first removal of a carotid 
artery blockage in 1950, interestingly the year that I was born, the 
first coronary artery bypass graft in 1964, the first use of a 
ventricle assist device to pump blood and support a diseased heart in 
1966; and then on to some of the first heart transplants in this 
country in 1968 and 1969.
  He developed a self-contained miniaturized left ventricular assist 
device to pump blood for a diseased heart, something that is in use to 
this day. The techniques used to miniaturize the device's inner 
workings were developed by engineers working on the Nation's space 
program at nearby NASA.
  He has served as adviser to every President of the United States for 
the last 50 years. Think of that, Mr. Speaker: every President for the 
last 50 years has depended upon Dr. Michael DeBakey for medical advice. 
He has given advice to heads of state throughout the world and traveled 
famously to Russia in 1996 to consult on heart surgery for the ailing 
Boris Yeltsin. I have

[[Page H11081]]

to believe, Mr. Speaker, that he did a lot more than consult in that 
operating room that day 10 years ago.
  During his professional surgical career, he performed more than 
60,000 cardiovascular procedures and trained thousands of surgeons who 
practice around the world. Today, his name is affixed to any number of 
organizations, centers for learning and projects devoted to medical 
education and health education for the general public.
  But think of this, Mr. Speaker: Dr. DeBakey also underwent an 
operation that was named for him. I picked up a copy of the New York 
Times last December and read a story about how Dr. DeBakey had 
undergone the surgery that he himself had described many years before. 
In fact, Dr. DeBakey admitted that at the time, although he knew he was 
ill, he never called his own doctor, he never called 911.
  ``If it becomes intense enough you are perfectly willing to accept 
cardiac arrest as a possible way of getting rid of the pain.'' This is 
what he told the New York Times last year. What a unique, what a 
pragmatic individual.
  He helped establish the National Library of Medicine which is now the 
world's largest and most prestigious repository of medical archives. 
The National Library of Medicine is something I look at several times a 
week as I prepare for committee hearings on our Committee on Energy and 
Commerce, developed and established by Dr. Michael DeBakey.
  Mr. Speaker, as we talk in this Congress about the need for improving 
computer technology for medical records and medical information, Dr. 
DeBakey was on the forefront of that while most of us were still in 
grammar school. In 1969 he received the highest honor a United States 
citizen can receive, the Presidential Medal of Freedom with 
Distinction. In 1976, his students founded the Michael E. DeBakey 
International Surgical Society. His contributions to medicine and his 
breakthrough surgeries and innovative devices have completely 
transformed our view of the human body and our view of longevity on 
this planet. He has been designated as a living legend by the United 
States Library of Congress; and, today, we take another step in 
honoring him with the Congressional Gold Medal.
  Mr. Speaker, it has been a high honor for me to be associated with 
this endeavor. And I certainly do thank Mr. Green and thank him for 
allowing me to be on the telephone when we gave the news to Dr. DeBakey 
several weeks ago on his 99th birthday. It is imperative that we get 
this legislation accomplished quickly. I appreciate Mr. Green's 
willingness to work with the other body in getting this legislation to 
the floor so swiftly.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Congressman 
Burgess, for it was he who called this piece of legislation to my 
attention. And he has been steadfastly with me throughout the process, 
and I am honored to have worked on this piece of legislation with him 
and Congressman Culberson.
  I also think that we would be remiss, Mr. Speaker, if we did not 
mention Mrs. DeBakey and the persons who are caring for him currently. 
We have had conversations with the persons caring for him. They have 
indicated that, of course, he was doing well when last we spoke to 
them, and they do an outstanding job of caring for Dr. DeBakey.
  Earlier, I mentioned that he has had the Methodist Hospital DeBakey 
Heart Center named in his honor, and I may have misspoken and said 
Baylor, but it is Methodist.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, this piece of legislation has received 
bipartisan as well as bicameral support. I had the honor of meeting 
with Senator Hutchison, and we talked about continuing the effort 
together to move this piece of legislation as quickly as possible 
through the process so that the President can sign it and get the 
actual award ceremony to take place. The President will now have 10 
days to sign this bill. History will show us that at no time has a 
President refused to sign a Congressional Gold Medal. So my suspicion 
is that this President, who is from the State of Texas, will move 
expeditiously to sign the bill. After the bill has been signed, the 
U.S. Mint will meet with the sponsors and with interested parties, 
which may include family members, to discuss possible designs for the 
medal.
  The Mint engravers will then prepare a series of sketches and 
possible designs for consideration. These designs will be commented on 
by the Commission of Fine Arts, and subsequently the Secretary of the 
Treasury will make the final decision as to the medal's design. The 
medal is created by the Philadelphia Mint. The medal will be in bronze. 
The gold medal, of course, will be the one presented to Dr. DeBakey, 
but there will be replicas in bronze to offset the cost of the medal, 
and arrangements will be made for the presentation of the gold medal, a 
ceremony to honor the Honorable Michael E. DeBakey.
  Mr. Speaker, this has been one of the great pleasures of my life in 
terms of being in Congress, in fact, one of the great pleasures of my 
life period. But this is a high point in my congressional career. I am 
so honored that my friends have worked with me on this process and that 
Senator Hutchison has been there throughout the entirety of the 
process. We are committed to making this happen as expeditiously as 
possible. If Dr. DeBakey were here today, I am confident that he would 
continue to talk about how great it is to be a part of this great 
country that we know as the United States of America.
  So I close by saying, God bless you, Dr. DeBakey, and thank you for 
what you have done to make life better for all of us, and God bless 
America.

                          ____________________