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[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2439 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2439

   To award a congressional gold medal to Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 19, 2004

Mrs. Hutchison (for herself, Mr. Frist, and Mr. Cornyn) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                  Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
   To award a congressional gold medal to Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D.

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

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D., was born on September 7, 
        1908 in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Shaker and Raheeja DeBakey.
            (2) Dr. DeBakey, at the age of 23 and still a medical 
        student, reported a major invention, a roller pump for blood 
        transfusions, which later became a major component of the 
        heart-lung machine used in the first successful open-heart 
        operation.
            (3) Even though Dr. DeBakey had already achieved a national 
        reputation as an authority on vascular disease and had a 
        promising career as a surgeon and teacher, he volunteered for 
        military service during World War II, joining the Surgeon 
        General's staff and rising to the rank of Colonel and Chief of 
        the Surgical Consultants Division.
            (4) As a result of this first-hand knowledge of military 
        service, Dr. DeBakey made numerous recommendations for the 
        proper staged management of war wounds, which led to the 
        development of mobile army surgical hospitals or MASH units, 
        and earned Dr. DeBakey the Legion of Merit in 1945.
            (5) After the war, Dr. DeBakey proposed the systematic 
        medical follow-up of veterans and recommended the creation of 
        specialized medical centers in different areas of the United 
        States to treat wounded military personnel returning from war, 
        and from this recommendation evolved the Veterans Affairs 
        Medical Center System and the establishment of the Commission 
        on Veterans Medical Problems of the National Research Council.
            (6) In 1948, Dr. DeBakey joined the Baylor University 
        College of Medicine, where he developed the first surgical 
        residency program in the City of Houston, and today, guided by 
        Dr. DeBakey's vision, the College is one of the most respected 
        health science centers in the Nation.
            (7) In 1953, Dr. DeBakey performed the first successful 
        procedures to treat patients who suffered aneurysms leading to 
        severe strokes, and he later developed a series of innovative 
        surgical techniques for the treatment of aneurysms enabling 
        thousands of lives to be saved in the years ahead.
            (8) In 1964, Dr. DeBakey triggered the most explosive era 
        in modern cardiac surgery, when he performed the first 
        successful coronary bypass, once again paving the way for 
        surgeons world-wide to offer hope to thousands of patients who 
        might otherwise succumb to heart disease.
            (9) Two years later, Dr. DeBakey made medical history 
        again, when he was the first to successfully use a partial 
        artificial heart to solve the problems of a patient who could 
        not be weaned from a heart-lung machine following open-heart 
        surgery.
            (10) In 1968, Dr. DeBakey supervised the first successful 
        multi-organ transplant, in which a heart, both kidneys, and 
        lung were transplanted from a single donor into 4 separate 
        recipients.
            (11) In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Dr. 
        DeBakey to the position of Chairman of the President's 
        Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke, leading to the 
        creation of Regional Medical Programs established ``to 
        encourage and assist in the establishment of regional 
        cooperative arrangements among medical schools, research 
        institutions, and hospitals, for research and training''.
            (12) In the mid-1960's, Dr. DeBakey pioneered the field of 
        telemedicine with the first demonstration of open-heart surgery 
        to be transmitted overseas by satellite.
            (13) In 1969, Dr. DeBakey was elected the first President 
        of Baylor College of Medicine.
            (14) In 1969, President Lyndon B. Johnson bestowed on Dr. 
        DeBakey the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, and 
        in 1985, President Ronald Reagan conferred on him the National 
        Medal of Science.
            (15) Working with NASA engineers, he refined existing 
        technology to create the DeBakey Ventricular Assist Device, 
        one-tenth the size of current versions, which may eliminate the 
        need for heart transplantation in some patients.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

    (a) Presentation Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of 
Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate shall make 
appropriate arrangements for the presentation, on behalf of the 
Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design, to Michael Ellis 
DeBakey, M.D., in recognition of his many outstanding contributions to 
the Nation.
    (b) Design and Striking.--For purposes of the presentation referred 
to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (referred to in 
this Act as the ``Secretary'') shall strike a gold medal with suitable 
emblems, devices, and inscriptions to be determined by the Secretary.

SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

    The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold 
medal struck pursuant to section 2 under such regulations as the 
Secretary may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the cost 
thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and 
overhead expenses, and the cost of the gold medal.

SEC. 4. STATUS OF MEDALS.

    (a) National Medals.--The medals struck pursuant to this Act are 
national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States 
Code.
    (b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of section 5134 of title 31, 
United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be 
considered to be numismatic items.

SEC. 5. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF SALE.

    (a) Authority To Use Fund Amounts.--There is authorized to be 
charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund such 
amounts as may be necessary to pay for the costs of the medals struck 
pursuant to this Act.
    (b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate 
bronze medals authorized under section 3 shall be deposited into the 
United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
                                 <all>
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