I 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4924 

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

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 9, 2006 

Mr. LATHAM (for himself, Mr. LEACH, Mr. KING of Iowa, Mr. BOSWELL, Mr. 

NUSSLE, Mr. SABO, Mr. KENNEDY of Minnesota, Mr. PETERSON of Minnesota, Mr. GUTKNECHT, Mr. OBERSTAR, Mr. KLINE, and Mr. 

RAMSTAD) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

A BILL 

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’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds as follows: 


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

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

3 primary and secondary education. 

4 (2) Dr. Borlaug attended the University of 

5 Minnesota where he received his B.A. and Ph.D. de6 grees and was also a star NCAA wrestler. 

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

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

9 of Texas A&M University. 

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

11 Sasakawa Africa Association. 

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

13 bringing radical change to world agriculture and up14 lifting humanity are without parallel. 

15 (6) In the immediate aftermath of World War 

16 II, Dr. Borlaug spent 20 years working in the poor17 est areas of rural Mexico. It was there that Dr. 

18 Borlaug made his breakthrough achievement in de19 veloping a strain of wheat that could exponentially 

20 increase yields while actively resisting disease. 

21 (7) With the active support of the governments 

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

23 hundreds of thousands of the rural poor in Mexico 

24 and saved hundreds of millions from famine and 

25 outright starvation in India and Pakistan. 


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

2 next spread throughout the Middle East. Soon there3 after his approach was adapted to rice growing, in4 creasing the number of lives Dr. Borlaug has saved 

5 to more than a billion people. 

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

7 Prize, the only person working in agriculture to ever 

8 be so honored. Since then he has received numerous 

9 honors and awards including the Presidential Medal 

10 of Freedom, the Public Service Medal, the National 

11 Academy of Sciences’ highest honor, and the Rotary 

12 International Award for World Understanding and 

13 Peace. 

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

15 to alleviate poverty and malnutrition. He currently 

16 serves as president of Sasakawa Global 2000 Africa 

17 Project, which seeks to extend the benefits of agri18 cultural development to the 800,000,000 people still 

19 mired in poverty and malnutrition in sub-Saharan 

20 Africa. 

21 (11) Dr. Borlaug continues to serve as Chair22 man of the Council of Advisors of the World Food 

23 Prize, an organization he created in 1986 to be the 

24 ‘‘Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture’’ and which 

25 presents a $250,000 prize each October at a CereVerDate Aug 31 2005 04:36 Mar 10, 2006 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4924.IH H4924

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1 mony in Des Moines, Iowa, to the Laureate who has 

2 made an exceptional achievement similar to Dr. 

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

4 20 years of its existence, the World Food Prize has 

5 honored Laureates from Bangladesh, India, China, 

6 Mexico, Denmark, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, the 

7 United Kingdom, and the United States. 

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

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

10 more lives in the Islamic world than any other 

11 human being in history. 

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

13 the saving and preservation of an untold amount of 

14 lives, Dr. Norman E. Borlaug is deserving of Amer15 ica’s highest civilian award: the congressional gold 

16 medal. 

17 SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 

18 (a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The President 

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

20 of Representatives are authorized to make appropriate ar21 rangements for the presentation, on behalf of Congress, 

22 of a gold medal of appropriate design, to Dr. Norman E. 

23 Borlaug, in recognition of his enduring contributions to 

24 the United States and the world. 


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

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

3 of the Treasury (hereafter in this Act referred to as the 

4 ‘‘Secretary’’) shall strike a gold medal with suitable em5 blems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the 

6 Secretary. 

7 SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 

8 Under such regulations as the Secretary may pre9 scribe, the Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 

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

11 sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, mate12 rials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, and 

13 the cost of the gold medal. 

14 SEC. 5. STATUS AS NATIONAL MEDALS. 

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

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

17 31, United States Code. 

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

19 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all duplicate medals 

20 struck under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic 

21 items. 

22 SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF 

23 SALE. 

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

25 are authorized to be charged against the United States 


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1 Mint Public Enterprise Fund, such sums as may be nec2 essary to pay for the cost of the medals struck under this 

3 Act. 

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

5 sale of duplicate bronze medals under section 4 shall be 

6 deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise 

7 Fund. 

Æ 


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