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 Mis-
sissippi, 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. GOR-
DON, Mr. FILNER, Mr. OXLEY, Mr. WOLF, Mr. ACEVEDO-VILA´, Mr. BOS-
WELL, Mr. WAXMAN, Ms. LEE, Mr. HILLIARD, Mr. DOOLEY of Cali-
fornia, 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. LI-
PINSKI, 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 Con-
necticut, 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 Flor-
ida, 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
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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Andrew Jackson Higgins designed, engi-
neered, and produced high speed boats and various
types of amphibious military landing craft, later to
become known as ‘‘Higgins boats’’, which were used
by Allied forces during World War II.
(2) Higgins boats, constructed of wood and
steel, transported fully-armed troops, light tanks,
field artillery, and other mechanized equipment es-
sential to Allied amphibious operations, including
the decisive D-Day attack at Normandy, France.
(3) Andrew Jackson Higgins also designed, en-
gineered, and constructed four major assembly line
plants in New Orleans for mass production of Hig-
gins landing craft and other vessels vital to the Al-
lied forces’ conduct of World War II.
(4) Andrew Jackson Higgins’ foresight, in pur-
chasing the materials needed to produce a large
number of boats even before the United States be-
came embroiled in World War II, contributed to the
Nation’s readiness when it finally did enter the war.
(5) Andrew Jackson Higgins instituted a pro-
gressive social policy in his Higgins Industries fac-
tories by employing a fully-integrated assembly line
work force of more than 20,000 black and white
men and women during World War II, with equal
pay for equal work, decades before legal require-
ments for integration and racial and gender equality
were instituted.
(6) Prior to November 1940, when Higgins In-
dustries began producing Higgins boats for the
United States Government, the Navy had only 18
landing craft in its fleet; by the conclusion of the
war, Higgins Industries had produced 20,094 land-
ing craft of all types and had trained more than
30,000 Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard personnel in
their use.
(7) In 1964, former President Dwight D. Ei-
senhower said of Andrew Jackson Higgins, ‘‘He is
the man who won the war for us. If Higgins had not
developed and produced those landing craft, we