I 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 6255 

To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Norman Yoshio Mineta in recognition of his courageous, principled dedication to public service, civic engagement, and civil rights. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 

Mr. HONDA (for himself, Mr. BERA, Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. CARTER of Georgia, Mr. CASTRO of Texas, Mr. CHABOT, Ms. 

JUDY CHU of California, Mr. COSTA, Mr. DENT, Mr. DESAULNIER, Ms. 

ESHOO, Mr. FARR, Mr. FLEISCHMANN, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. AL GREEN

of Texas, Mr. HANNA, Mr. HARPER, Mr. HECK of Nevada, Mr. HILL, 

Mr. LAMALFA, Ms. LEE, Mr. TED LIEU of California, Ms. LOFGREN, 

Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mrs. LUMMIS, Mr. MARINO, Ms. MATSUI, Mr. MCKINLEY, Ms. MENG, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. NUNES, Mr. ROHRABACHER, 

Mr. SALMON, Mr. SHUSTER, Mr. SMITH of Missouri, Mr. SWALWELL of 

California, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Mr. VALADAO, 

Mr. VARGAS, Mrs. MIMI WALTERS of California, Mr. YOUNG of Alaska, 

Mr. BECERRA, and Mr. FARENTHOLD) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

A BILL 

To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Norman Yoshio 

Mineta in recognition of his courageous, principled dedication to public service, civic engagement, and civil 

rights. 

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


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Norman Yoshio Mineta 

3 Congressional Gold Medal Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

5 Congress finds the following: 

6 (1) Norman Yoshio Mineta was born November 

7 12, 1931, in San Jose, California, to immigrant par8 ents, Kunisaku and Kane Mineta, from Shizouka 

9 prefecture in Japan. 

10 (2) In 1942, Mineta and his family were forc11 ibly relocated to the Heart Mountain Relocation 

12 Center in Wyoming. They were among 120,000 peo13 ple of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were 

14 natural-born United States citizens, sent to intern15 ment camps by the United States Government dur16 ing the Second World War. 

17 (3) After graduating from the University of 

18 California at Berkeley, Mineta served as an intel19 ligence officer for the United States Army in Korea 

20 and Japan from 1953 to 1956. Mineta then joined 

21 his father’s insurance business located in San Jose’s 

22 Japantown. 

23 (4) In 1966, Mineta accepted an appointment 

24 to the San Jose Housing Authority, believing com25 munity involvement to be essential to civic life and 

26 the full integration of Japanese Americans into his 


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1 hometown. He became a city councilmember one 

2 year later. 

3 (5) Mineta was elected mayor of San Jose in 

4 1971, becoming the first Asian American mayor of 

5 a major American city in the continental United 

6 States. As mayor, he worked to economically develop 

7 San Jose as ‘‘Silicon Valley’’ was forming, and also 

8 strengthened community relations by engaging racial 

9 and ethnic minorities through San Jose city depart10 ments and agencies, including the San Jose Police 

11 Department. 

12 (6) From 1975 to 1995, Mineta served as a 

13 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, rep14 resenting the heart of Santa Clara County and Sil15 icon Valley. He served on numerous committees, in16 cluding the Budget, Intelligence, and Science com17 mittees. He served longest on the House Public 

18 Works and Transportation Committee, now known 

19 as the Transportation and Infrastructure Com20 mittee, including as Committee Chairman. 

21 (7) In 1978, Mineta, along with Representative 

22 Frank Horton (R–NY), introduced a bipartisan joint 

23 resolution authorizing and requesting the President 

24 to proclaim the 7-day period beginning on May 4, 

25 1979, as ‘‘Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week’’. 


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1 May is the month when the first Japanese immi2 grants arrived in the United States in 1843, and 

3 also when Chinese laborers completed the trans4 continental railroad in 1869. The resolution became 

5 Public Law that year, and was later expanded to 

6 recognize the month of May as Asian Pacific Amer7 ican Heritage Month. 

8 (8) In 1987, Mineta had the honor of signing 

9 the Civil Liberties Act which offered an official apol10 ogy and redress for the grave injustices committed 

11 against Americans of Japanese ancestry during 

12 World War II, on behalf of the House of Represent13 atives when acting as Speaker pro tempore. In a cul14 mination of a 10-year bipartisan effort, President 

15 Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law as Public 

16 Law 100–383 on August 10, 1988. 

17 (9) Throughout his tenure in the House of Rep18 resentatives, Mineta was a strong advocate for 

19 transportation laws which made air travel safer and 

20 aviation and transit systems more accessible to 

21 Americans with disabilities. He also authored the 

22 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 

23 1991, which gave State, local, and regional govern24 ments greater control over the use of Federal dollars 

25 in their communities. 


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1 (10) Mineta co-founded the Congressional Asian 

2 Pacific American Caucus and the Asian Pacific 

3 American Institute for Congressional Studies in 

4 1994, which today continue to promote the well5 being and full participation of these communities in 

6 American civic life. 

7 (11) In 2000, Mineta became the first Asian 

8 American to serve in a Presidential Cabinet as the 

9 Secretary of Commerce under President William J. 

10 Clinton. 

11 (12) In 2001, Mineta continued his dedication 

12 to public service and bipartisanship by serving as 

13 Secretary of Transportation under President George 

14 W. Bush. 

15 (13) Mineta was at the helm of the Department 

16 of Transportation on the day of the September 11, 

17 2001, terrorist attacks. In the aftermath of the at18 tacks and through the end of his tenure as Secretary 

19 of Transportation, he ushered in critical reforms to 

20 the Nation’s transportation and security screening 

21 networks. 

22 (14) In 2001, the San Jose City Council an23 nounced that the city’s airport was to be renamed 

24 the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Air25 port. 


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1 (15) Mineta received the Presidential Medal of 

2 Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United 

3 States, in 2006 from President George W. Bush, 

4 and the Grand Cordon, Order of the Rising Sun, 

5 from the Government of Japan, which is the highest 

6 honor bestowed upon an individual outside of Japan. 

7 (16) Having personally experienced the wrong8 ful indignity of internment as a child by his own 

9 government, Norman Yoshio Mineta has dedicated 

10 his life to public service, to his community, and to 

11 his country, and has done so with exemplary dignity 

12 and integrity. 

13 SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 

14 (a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of 

15 the House of Representatives and the President pro tem16 pore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements 

17 for the presentation, on behalf of the Congress, of a gold 

18 medal of appropriate design to Norman Yoshio Mineta, 

19 in recognition of his courageous, principled dedication to 

20 public service, civic engagement, and civil rights. 

21 (b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For purposes of the 

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

23 of the Treasury (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Sec24 retary’’) shall strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, 


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1 devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Sec2 retary. 

3 SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 

4 The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 

5 bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 3 

6 under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, at 

7 a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, 

8 materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, 

9 and the cost of the gold medal. 

10 SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 

11 (a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—The medals struck pursu12 ant to this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 

13 51 of title 31, United States Code. 

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

15 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck 

16 under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items. 

Æ 


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