109TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2250

AN ACT

To award a congressional gold medal to Dr. Norman E.

Borlaug.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Congressional Tribute

5 to Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Act of 2006’’.
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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

2 Congress finds as follows:

3 (1) Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, was born in Iowa

4 where he grew up on a family farm, and received his

5 primary and secondary education.

6 (2) Dr. Borlaug attended the University of

7 Minnesota where he received his B.A. and Ph.D. de8 grees and was also a star NCAA wrestler.

9 (3) For the past 20 years, Dr. Borlaug has

10 lived in Texas where he is a member of the faculty

11 of Texas A&M University.

12 (4) Dr. Borlaug also serves as President of the

13 Sasakawa Africa Association.

14 (5) Dr. Borlaug’s accomplishments in terms of

15 bringing radical change to world agriculture and up16 lifting humanity are without parallel.

17 (6) In the immediate aftermath of World War

18 II, Dr. Borlaug spent 20 years working in the poor19 est areas of rural Mexico. It was there that Dr.

20 Borlaug made his breakthrough achievement in de21 veloping a strand of wheat that could exponentially

22 increase yields while actively resisting disease.

23 (7) With the active support of the governments

24 involved, Dr. Borlaug’s ‘‘green revolution’’ uplifted

25 hundreds of thousands of the rural poor in Mexico
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1 and saved hundreds of millions from famine and

2 outright starvation in India and Pakistan.

3 (8) Dr. Borlaug’s approach to wheat production

4 next spread throughout the Middle East. Soon there5 after his approach was adapted to rice growing, in6 creasing the number of lives Dr. Borlaug has saved

7 to more than a billion people.

8 (9) In 1970, Dr. Borlaug received the Nobel

9 Prize, the only person working in agriculture to ever

10 be so honored. Since then he has received numerous

11 honors and awards including the Presidential Medal

12 of Freedom, the Public Service Medal, the National

13 Academy of Sciences’ highest honor, and the Rotary

14 International Award for World Understanding and

15 Peace.

16 (10) At age 91, Dr. Borlaug continues to work

17 to alleviate poverty and malnutrition. He currently

18 serves as president of Sasakawa Global 2000 Africa

19 Project, which seeks to extend the benefits of agri20 cultural development to the 800,000,000 people still

21 mired in poverty and malnutrition in sub-Saharan

22 Africa.

23 (11) Dr. Borlaug continues to serve as Chair24 man of the Council of Advisors of the World Food

25 Prize, an organization he created in 1986 to be the
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1 ‘‘Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture’’ and which

2 presents a $250,000 prize each October at a Cere3 mony in Des Moines, Iowa, to the Laureate who has

4 made an exceptional achievement similar to Dr.

5 Borlaug’s breakthrough 40 years ago. In the almost

6 20 years of its existence, the World Food Prize has

7 honored Laureates from Bangladesh, India, China,

8 Mexico, Denmark, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, the

9 United Kingdom, and the United States.

10 (12) Dr. Borlaug has saved more lives than any

11 other person who has ever lived, and likely has saved

12 more lives in the Islamic world than any other

13 human being in history.

14 (13) Due to a lifetime of work that has led to

15 the saving and preservation of an untold amount of

16 lives, Dr. Norman E. Borlaug is deserving of Amer17 ica’s highest civilian award: the congressional gold

18 medal.

19 SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

20 (a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The President

21 Pro Tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House

22 of Representatives are authorized to make appropriate ar23 rangements for the presentation, on behalf of Congress,

24 of a gold medal of appropriate design, to Dr. Norman E.
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1 Borlaug, in recognition of his enduring contributions to

2 the United States and the world.

3 (b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For the purpose of the

4 presentation referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary

5 of the Treasury (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Sec6 retary’’) shall strike a gold medal with suitable emblems,

7 devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Sec8 retary.

9 SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

10 Under such regulations as the Secretary may pre11 scribe, the Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in

12 bronze of the gold medal struck under section 3 at a price

13 sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, mate14 rials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, and

15 the cost of the gold medal.

16 SEC. 5. STATUS AS NATIONAL MEDALS.

17 (a) NATIONAL MEDAL.—The medal struck under this

18 Act is a national medal for purposes of chapter 51 of title

19 31, United States Code.

20 (b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of section

21 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all duplicate medals

22 struck under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic

23 items.
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1 SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF

2 SALE.

3 (a) AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS.—There

4 are authorized to be charged against the United States

5 Mint Public Enterprise Fund, such sums as may be nec6 essary to pay for the cost of the medals struck under this

7 Act.

8 (b) PROCEEDS OF SALE.—Amounts received from the

9 sale of duplicate bronze medals under section 4 shall be

10 deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise

11 Fund.

Passed the Senate September 27, 2006.

Attest:

Secretary.
109TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2250

AN ACT

To award a congressional gold medal to Dr.

Norman E. Borlaug.