I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 2078

To authorize the President to award gold medals on behalf of the Congress

to the family of Andrew Jackson Higgins and the wartime employees

of Higgins Industries, in recognition of their contributions to the Nation

and to the Allied victory in World War II.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JUNE 6, 2001

Mr. JEFFERSON (for himself, Mr. TAUZIN, Mr. MCCRERY, Mr. BAKER, Mr.

JOHN, Mr. COOKSEY, Mr. VITTER, Mr. SPRATT, Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi, Mr. KLECZKA, Mr. BAIRD, Mr. KANJORSKI, Mrs. THURMAN, Mr.

OWENS, Mr. CLAY, Mr. HOLT, Mr. WALSH, Mrs. MINK of Hawaii, Ms.

CARSON of Indiana, Mr. GONZALEZ, Mr. FROST, Mr. SHAYS, Mr. GORDON, Mr. FILNER, Mr. OXLEY, Mr. WOLF, Mr. ACEVEDO-VILA ́, Mr. BOSWELL, Mr. WAXMAN, Ms. LEE, Mr. HILLIARD, Mr. DOOLEY of California, Mr. MCNULTY, Mr. BACA, Mr. REYES, Mr. MASCARA, Mr.

ISAKSON, Mr. SKELTON, Ms. RIVERS, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr.

FALEOMAVAEGA, Ms. MCKINNEY, Mr. LATOURETTE, Mr. THOMPSON of

California, Mr. RAHALL, Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. BORSKI, Mr. COYNE, Mr.

LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. UDALL of New Mexico, Mr. RUSH, Mrs.

MALONEY of New York, Mr. MALONEY of Connecticut, Mr. SHERMAN,

Mr. CLEMENT, Mr. FATTAH, Mr. BECERRA, Mrs. JONES of Ohio, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. PASCRELL, Mrs. MORELLA, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr.

COSTELLO, Mr. RODRIGUEZ, Mr. BUYER, Mr. WYNN, Mr. BALDACCI, Mr.

ABERCROMBIE, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. BLAGOJEVICH, Mr. LARSON of Connecticut, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. GUTIERREZ, Mr. HALL of Ohio, Mr.

ORTIZ, Mr. TOWNS, Ms. BROWN of Florida, Mr. BISHOP, Mr. FORD, Mr.

DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. CLYBURN, Mrs. CLAYTON, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of

Texas, Mrs. MEEK of Florida, Mr. MEEKS of New York, Ms.

MILLENDER-MCDONALD, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. SCOTT, Mr.

THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. WATERS, Mr. WATT of North Carolina,

Mr. HONDA, and Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin) introduced the following bill;

which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services
2

•HR 2078 IH

A BILL

To authorize the President to award gold medals on behalf

of the Congress to the family of Andrew Jackson Higgins

and the wartime employees of Higgins Industries, in

recognition of their contributions to the Nation and to

the Allied victory in World War II.

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

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

4 The Congress finds the following:

5 (1) Andrew Jackson Higgins designed, engi6 neered, and produced high speed boats and various

7 types of amphibious military landing craft, later to

8 become known as ‘‘Higgins boats’’, which were used

9 by Allied forces during World War II.

10 (2) Higgins boats, constructed of wood and

11 steel, transported fully-armed troops, light tanks,

12 field artillery, and other mechanized equipment es13 sential to Allied amphibious operations, including

14 the decisive D-Day attack at Normandy, France.

15 (3) Andrew Jackson Higgins also designed, en16 gineered, and constructed four major assembly line

17 plants in New Orleans for mass production of Hig18 gins landing craft and other vessels vital to the Al19 lied forces’ conduct of World War II.
3

•HR 2078 IH

1 (4) Andrew Jackson Higgins’ foresight, in pur2 chasing the materials needed to produce a large

3 number of boats even before the United States be4 came embroiled in World War II, contributed to the

5 Nation’s readiness when it finally did enter the war.

6 (5) Andrew Jackson Higgins instituted a pro7 gressive social policy in his Higgins Industries fac8 tories by employing a fully-integrated assembly line

9 work force of more than 20,000 black and white

10 men and women during World War II, with equal

11 pay for equal work, decades before legal require12 ments for integration and racial and gender equality

13 were instituted.

14 (6) Prior to November 1940, when Higgins In15 dustries began producing Higgins boats for the

16 United States Government, the Navy had only 18

17 landing craft in its fleet; by the conclusion of the

18 war, Higgins Industries had produced 20,094 land19 ing craft of all types and had trained more than

20 30,000 Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard personnel in

21 their use.

22 (7) In 1964, former President Dwight D. Ei23 senhower said of Andrew Jackson Higgins, ‘‘He is

24 the man who won the war for us. If Higgins had not

25 developed and produced those landing craft, we
4

•HR 2078 IH

1 never could have gone in over an open beach. We

2 would have had to change the entire strategy of the

3 war.’’

4 (8) Together, Andrew Jackson Higgins and the

5 employees of Higgins Industries provided a decisive

6 and essential contribution to the United States and

7 Allied victory in World War II while practicing racial

8 and gender workplace equality far in advance of the

9 norm for the time.

10 SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDALS.

11 (a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The President is

12 authorized to present, on behalf of the Congress—

13 (1) a gold medal of appropriate design to the

14 family of Andrew Jackson Higgins in recognition of

15 his contributions to the Nation and to the Allied vic16 tory in World War II;

17 (2) a gold medal identical to the medal referred

18 to in paragraph (1) to the D-Day Museum in New

19 Orleans, Louisiana, for public display; and

20 (3) a gold medal of appropriate design to the

21 D-Day Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, in honor

22 of the World War II employees of Higgins Industries

23 and in recognition of their contributions to the Na24 tion and to the Allied victory in World War II.
5

•HR 2078 IH

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

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

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

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

6 Secretary.

7 SEC. 3. 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 medals struck under section 2 at a price

11 sufficient to cover the costs of the duplicate bronze medals

12 (including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and

13 overhead expenses) and the cost of the gold medals.

14 SEC. 4. NATIONAL MEDALS.

15 The medals struck under this Act are national medals

16 for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.

17 SEC. 5. FUNDING AND PROCEEDS OF SALE.

18 (a) AUTHORIZATION.—There is hereby authorized to

19 be charged against the United States Mint Public Enter20 prise Fund an amount not to exceed $60,000 to pay for

21 the cost of the medals authorized by this Act.

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

23 sale of duplicate bronze medals under section 3 shall be
6

•HR 2078 IH

1 deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise

2 Fund.

Æ