Norman Yoshio Mineta Congressional Gold Medal Act

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Norman Yoshio Mineta Congressional 
Gold Medal Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Norman Yoshio Mineta was born November 12, 1931, in San 
        Jose, California, to immigrant parents, Kunisaku and Kane 
        Mineta, from Shizouka prefecture in Japan.
            (2) In 1942, Mineta and his family were forcibly relocated 
        to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming. They were 
        among 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom 
        were natural-born United States citizens, sent to internment 
        camps by the United States Government during the Second World 
        War.
            (3) After graduating from the University of California at 
        Berkeley, Mineta served as an intelligence officer for the 
        United States Army in Korea and Japan from 1953 to 1956. Mineta 
        then joined his father's insurance business located in San 
        Jose's Japantown.
            (4) In 1966, Mineta accepted an appointment to the San Jose 
        Housing Authority, believing community involvement to be 
        essential to civic life and the full integration of Japanese 
        Americans into his hometown. He became a city councilmember one 
        year later.
            (5) Mineta was elected mayor of San Jose in 1971, becoming 
        the first Asian American mayor of a major American city in the 
        continental United States. As mayor, he worked to economically 
        develop San Jose as ``Silicon Valley'' was forming, and also 
        strengthened community relations by engaging racial and ethnic 
        minorities through San Jose city departments and agencies, 
        including the San Jose Police Department.
            (6) From 1975 to 1995, Mineta served as a Member of the 
        U.S. House of Representatives, representing the heart of Santa 
        Clara County and Silicon Valley. He served on numerous 
        committees, including the Budget, Intelligence, and Science 
        committees. He served longest on the House Public Works and 
        Transportation Committee, now known as the Transportation and 
        Infrastructure Committee, including as Committee Chairman.
            (7) In 1978, Mineta, along with Representative Frank Horton 
        (R-NY), introduced a bipartisan joint resolution authorizing 
        and requesting the President to proclaim the 7-day period 
        beginning on May 4, 1979, as ``Asian/Pacific American Heritage 
        Week''. May is the month when the first Japanese immigrants 
        arrived in the United States in 1843, and also when Chinese 
        laborers completed the transcontinental railroad in 1869. The 
        resolution became Public Law that year, and was later expanded 
        to recognize the month of May as Asian Pacific American 
        Heritage Month.
            (8) In 1987, Mineta had the honor of signing the Civil 
        Liberties Act which offered an official apology and redress for 
        the grave injustices committed against Americans of Japanese 
        ancestry during World War II, on behalf of the House of 
        Representatives when acting as Speaker pro tempore. In a 
        culmination of a 10-year bipartisan effort, President Ronald 
        Reagan signed the bill into law as Public Law 100-383 on August 
        10, 1988.
            (9) Throughout his tenure in the House of Representatives, 
        Mineta was a strong advocate for transportation laws which made 
        air travel safer and aviation and transit systems more 
        accessible to Americans with disabilities. He also authored the 
        Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, which 
        gave State, local, and regional governments greater control 
        over the use of Federal dollars in their communities.
            (10) Mineta co-founded the Congressional Asian Pacific 
        American Caucus and the Asian Pacific American Institute for 
        Congressional Studies in 1994, which today continue to promote 
        the well-being and full participation of these communities in 
        American civic life.
            (11) In 2000, Mineta became the first Asian American to 
        serve in a Presidential Cabinet as the Secretary of Commerce 
        under President William J. Clinton.
            (12) In 2001, Mineta continued his dedication to public 
        service and bipartisanship by serving as Secretary of 
        Transportation under President George W. Bush.
            (13) Mineta was at the helm of the Department of 
        Transportation on the day of the September 11, 2001, terrorist 
        attacks. In the aftermath of the attacks and through the end of 
        his tenure as Secretary of Transportation, he ushered in 
        critical reforms to the Nation's transportation and security 
        screening networks.
            (14) In 2001, the San Jose City Council announced that the 
        city's airport was to be renamed the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose 
        International Airport.
            (15) Mineta received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the 
        highest civilian award in the United States, in 2006 from 
        President George W. Bush, and the Grand Cordon, Order of the 
        Rising Sun, from the Government of Japan, which is the highest 
        honor bestowed upon an individual outside of Japan.
            (16) Having personally experienced the wrongful indignity 
        of internment as a child by his own government, Norman Yoshio 
        Mineta has dedicated his life to public service, to his 
        community, and to his country, and has done so with exemplary 
        dignity and integrity.

SEC. 3. 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 Norman Yoshio 
Mineta, in recognition of his courageous, principled dedication to 
public service, civic engagement, and civil rights.
    (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. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

    The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold 
medal struck pursuant to section 3 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. 5. 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 section 5134 of title 31, 
United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be 
considered to be numismatic items.

Summary: Norman Yoshio Mineta Congressional Gold Medal Act This bill directs the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate to arrange for the presentation of a Congressional Gold Medal to Norman Yoshio Mineta in recognition of his dedication tonbsp, public service, civic engagement, and civil rights.