II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2185 

To require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins in recognition of 

the fight against breast cancer. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

OCTOBER 20, 2015 

Ms. HEITKAMP (for herself, Ms. AYOTTE, Ms. COLLINS, Mrs. CAPITO, Mr. 

HOEVEN, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Ms. HIRONO, and Mrs. 

GILLIBRAND) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins 

in recognition of the fight against breast cancer. 

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 ‘‘Breast Cancer Aware5 ness Commemorative Coin Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds that— 


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1 (1) breast cancer is the most common cancer 

2 among women of the United States, except for skin 

3 cancers; 

4 (2) today, about 1 in 8, or 12 percent of, 

5 women in the United States will develop invasive 

6 breast cancer, which is an increase from 1 in 11, or 

7 9 percent of, women in 1975; 

8 (3) breast cancer is the second leading cause of 

9 cancer death in women; 

10 (4) the chance of dying from breast cancer is 

11 about 1 in 36; 

12 (5) thanks to earlier detection, increased aware13 ness, and improved treatment, death rates from 

14 breast cancer have decreased since 1989; 

15 (6) there is a strong interest among the people 

16 of the United States to do more to tackle breast can17 cer; 

18 (7) the National Cancer Institute estimates that 

19 $18,100,000,000 was spent in the United States on 

20 breast cancer care in 2014; 

21 (8) finding a cure for breast cancer is a goal of 

22 the United States Government; 

23 (9) the National Institutes of Health dedicated 

24 an estimated $674,000,000 for breast cancer re25 search in fiscal year 2014; 


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1 (10) in fiscal year 2014, the Breast Cancer Re2 search Program of the Department of Defense re3 ceived $120,000,000; 

4 (11) while the National Institutes of Health 

5 and the Department of Defense program on breast 

6 cancer research remain the largest funders of breast 

7 cancer research in the United States, funding for 

8 the National Cancer Institute was reduced by nearly 

9 $66,000,000 between 2011 and 2013; 

10 (12) the funding level for the Department of 

11 Defense Breast Cancer Research Program has re12 mained consistent since 2012, but this amount rep13 resents a 20-percent decrease from 2011 funding 

14 levels; 

15 (13) additional private sector support for breast 

16 cancer research will help find cures for breast cancer 

17 even faster; 

18 (14) it is estimated that, in the United States, 

19 231,840 women will be diagnosed with, and 40,290 

20 women will die of, breast cancer in 2015; 

21 (15) on average, every 13 minutes a woman 

22 dies of breast cancer in the United States; 

23 (16) due to disease type and lack of adequate 

24 care, African-American women have the highest 

25 death rates of all racial and ethnic groups overall 


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1 and are at least 44-percent more likely to die of 

2 breast cancer than women of other racial and ethnic 

3 groups; 

4 (17) breast cancer used to be considered a dis5 ease of aging but recent trends show that more ag6 gressive forms of the disease have been increasingly 

7 diagnosed in younger women; 

8 (18) breast cancer is the most frequently diag9 nosed cancer among nearly every racial and ethnic 

10 group, including African-American, American In11 dian/Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, and His12 panic/Latina women; 

13 (19) clinical advances resulting from research 

14 have led to increased survival rates from breast can15 cer; 

16 (20) since 1990, death rates from breast cancer 

17 have dropped more than 34 percent; 

18 (21) it is estimated that there will be 2,350 new 

19 cases of invasive breast cancer and 440 breast can20 cer deaths among men in the United States in 2015; 

21 (22) at this time there are more than 3,100,000 

22 breast cancer survivors in the United States; 

23 (23) it is estimated that breast cancer costs 

24 $12,500,000,000 in lost productivity; 


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1 (24) the losses of productivity due to breast 

2 cancer will increase with the projected growth rate 

3 and aging of the population of the United States if 

4 cancer mortality rates stay constant in the future; 

5 (25) there is a better chance of survival, and 

6 there are more treatment options available, with 

7 early stage detection through mammograms and 

8 clinical breast exams; 

9 (26) breast cancer is the most common cancer 

10 in women worldwide, with an estimated 1,700,000 

11 new cases of breast cancer among women worldwide 

12 in 2012; 

13 (27) the Breast Cancer Research Foundation 

14 (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘‘BCRF’’) is 

15 considered one of the most efficient cancer research 

16 charities; 

17 (28) of every dollar donated to BCRF, 91 cents 

18 goes to research and awareness programs, 88 cents 

19 towards research and 3 cents towards awareness; 

20 (29) founded in 1993, BCRF has raised more 

21 than $500,000,000 to fuel discoveries in tumor biol22 ogy, genetics, prevention, treatment, survivorship, 

23 and metastasis, making BCRF one of the largest 

24 private funders of breast cancer research in the 

25 world; and 


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1 (30) in 2014 and 2015, BCRF committed 

2 $58,600,000 in research, including $11,600,000 to 

3 the international Evelyn H. Lauder Founder’s Fund 

4 focused on metastasis, to support the work of more 

5 than 220 researchers at leading medical institutions 

6 across 6 continents, including 25 States and 14 

7 countries. 

8 SEC. 3. COIN SPECIFICATIONS. 

9 (a) DENOMINATIONS.—The Secretary of the Treas10 ury (hereafter in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) 

11 shall mint and issue the following coins: 

12 (1) $5 GOLD COINS.—Not more than 50,000 $5 

13 gold coins, which shall— 

14 (A) have a diameter of 0.850 inches; and 

15 (B) be made of ‘‘pink gold’’, which con16 tains not less than 75-percent gold. 

17 (2) $1 SILVER COINS.—Not more than 400,000 

18 $1 coins, which shall— 

19 (A) weigh 26.73 grams; 

20 (B) have a diameter of 1.500 inches; and 

21 (C) contain not less than 90-percent silver. 

22 (3) HALF-DOLLAR CLAD COINS.—Not more 

23 than 750,000 half-dollar coins which shall— 

24 (A) weigh 11.34 grams; 

25 (B) have a diameter of 1.205 inches; and 


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1 (C) be minted to the specifications for half2 dollar coins contained in section 5112(b) of title 

3 31, United States Code. 

4 (b) LEGAL TENDER.—The coins minted under this 

5 Act shall be legal tender, as provided in section 5103 of 

6 title 31, United States Code. 

7 (c) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of sections 

8 5134 and 5136 of title 31, United States Code, all coins 

9 minted under this Act shall be considered to be numis10 matic items. 

11 SEC. 4. DESIGN OF COINS. 

12 (a) DESIGN REQUIREMENTS.— 

13 (1) IN GENERAL.—The design of the coins 

14 minted under this Act shall be emblematic of the 

15 fight against breast cancer. 

16 (2) DESIGNATION AND INSCRIPTIONS.—On 

17 each coin minted under this Act there shall be— 

18 (A) a designation of the face value of the 

19 coin; 

20 (B) an inscription of the year ‘‘2018’’; and 

21 (C) inscriptions of the words ‘‘Liberty’’, 

22 ‘‘In God We Trust’’, ‘‘United States of Amer23 ica’’, and ‘‘E Pluribus Unum’’. 

24 (b) SELECTION.—The design for the coins minted 

25 under this Act shall be selected by the Secretary based 


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1 on the winning design from a juried, compensated design 

2 competition described under subsection (c). 

3 (c) DESIGN COMPETITION.— 

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall hold a 

5 competition and provide compensation for the winner 

6 of the competition to design the obverse and reverse 

7 of the coins minted under this Act. The competition 

8 shall be judged by an expert jury chaired by the Sec9 retary and consisting of 3 members from the Citi10 zens Coinage Advisory Committee who shall be elect11 ed by the Committee and 3 members from the Com12 mission of Fine Arts who shall be elected by the 

13 Commission. 

14 (2) PROPOSALS.—As part of the competition 

15 described in this subsection, the Secretary may ac16 cept proposals from artists, engravers of the United 

17 States Mint, and members of the general public, and 

18 any designs submitted for the design review process 

19 described herein shall be anonymized until a final se20 lection is made. 

21 (3) ACCOMPANYING DESIGNS; PREFERENCE

22 FOR PHYSICAL DESIGNS.—The Secretary shall en23 courage 3-dimensional designs to be submitted as 

24 part of the proposals, and the jury shall give a pref25 erence for proposals that are accompanied by a 3- 


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1 dimensional physical design instead of, or in addition 

2 to, an electronic design. 

3 (4) COMPENSATION.—The Secretary shall de4 termine compensation for the winning design under 

5 this subsection, which shall be not less than $5,000. 

6 The Secretary shall take into account this compensa7 tion amount when determining the sale price de8 scribed in section 6(a). 

9 SEC. 5. ISSUANCE OF COINS. 

10 (a) QUALITY OF COINS.—Coins minted under this 

11 Act shall be issued in uncirculated and proof qualities. 

12 (b) PERIOD FOR ISSUANCE.—The Secretary may 

13 issue coins minted under this Act only during the 1-year 

14 period beginning on January 1, 2018. 

15 SEC. 6. SALE OF COINS. 

16 (a) SALE PRICE.—The coins issued under this Act 

17 shall be sold by the Secretary at a price equal to the sum 

18 of— 

19 (1) the face value of the coins; 

20 (2) the surcharge provided in section 7(a) with 

21 respect to the coins; and 

22 (3) the cost of designing and issuing the coins, 

23 including— 

24 (A) labor; 

25 (B) materials; 


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1 (C) dies; 

2 (D) use of machinery; 

3 (E) overhead expenses; 

4 (F) marketing; and 

5 (G) shipping. 

6 (b) BULK SALES.—The Secretary shall make bulk 

7 sales of the coins issued under this Act at a reasonable 

8 discount. 

9 (c) PREPAID ORDERS.— 

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall accept 

11 prepaid orders for the coins minted under this Act 

12 before the issuance of the coins. 

13 (2) DISCOUNT.—Sale prices with respect to pre14 paid orders under paragraph (1) shall be at a rea15 sonable discount. 

16 SEC. 7. SURCHARGES. 

17 (a) IN GENERAL.—All sales of coins issued under this 

18 Act shall include a surcharge of— 

19 (1) $35 per coin for the $5 coin; 

20 (2) $10 per coin for the $1 coin; and 

21 (3) $5 per coin for the half-dollar coin. 

22 (b) DISTRIBUTION.—Subject to section 5134(f) of 

23 title 31, United States Code, all surcharges which are re24 ceived by the Secretary from the sale of coins issued under 

25 this Act shall be promptly paid by the Secretary to the 


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1 Breast Cancer Research Foundation, New York, New 

2 York, for the purpose of furthering research funded by 

3 the Foundation. 

4 (c) AUDITS.—The surcharge recipient under sub5 section (b) shall be subject to the audit requirements of 

6 section 5134(f)(2) of title 31, United States Code, with 

7 regard to the amounts received under that subsection. 

8 (d) LIMITATIONS.—Notwithstanding subsection (a), 

9 no surcharge may be included with respect to the issuance 

10 under this Act of any coin during a calendar year if, at 

11 the time of the issuance, the issuance of the coin would 

12 result in the number of commemorative coin programs 

13 issued during that year to exceed the commemorative coin 

14 program restriction under section 5112(m)(1) of title 31, 

15 United States Code (as in effect on the date of the enact16 ment of this Act). The Secretary may issue guidance to 

17 carry out this subsection. 

Æ 


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