I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6221 
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Don Stephens, President and Found-
er of Mercy Ships, in recognition of his 38 years of service as the 
leader of a humanitarian relief organization that exemplifies the compas-
sionate character of America. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 
Mr. GOHMERT (for himself, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. SMITH of Texas, Mr. 
MCCAUL, Mr. NEUGEBAUER, Mr. FARENTHOLD, Mr. CONAWAY, Mr. 
BARTON, Mr. WILLIAMS, Mr. WEBER of Texas, Mr. BABIN, Mr. GENE 
GREEN of Texas, Mr. AL GREEN of Texas, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mr. 
MARCHANT, Mr. OLSON, Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. CUELLAR, Mr. 
CARTER of Texas, Mr. BURGESS, Mr. BRADY of Texas, Mr. RATCLIFFE, 
and Mr. HURD of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Don Stephens, 
President and Founder of Mercy Ships, in recognition 
of his 38 years of service as the leader of a humanitarian 
relief organization that exemplifies the compassionate 
character of America. 
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: 
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(1) Mercy Ships was founded in 1978 and has 
worked in more than 70 countries, providing services 
valued at more than $1.3 billion, treating more than 
2.56 million direct beneficiaries. 
(2) Mercy Ships owns and operates the world’s 
largest private hospital ship, the Africa Mercy that 
has five state-of-the-art operating rooms and ward 
bed space for 82 patients. 
(3) Mercy Ships vessels are staffed by profes-
sional volunteer crew including surgeons, nurses, 
doctors, dentists, cooks, engineers, agriculturalists, 
teachers, and others. 
(4) Mercy Ships has performed more than 
82,000 life-changing or life-saving operations such 
as cleft lip and palate repair, cataract removal, or-
thopedic procedures, facial reconstruction, obstetric 
fistula repair, and tumor removal. 
(5) Mercy Ships has treated over 147,000 den-
tal patients including over 390,000 dental proce-
dures. 
(6) Mercy Ships has trained more than 5,900 
local professionals (including surgeons) who have in 
turn trained many others. 
(7) Mercy Ships has trained over 38,100 local 
professionals in their area of expertise including an-
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esthesiology, midwifery, sterilization, orthopedic and 
reconstructive surgery, and leadership, thereby in-
creasing medical capacity in the host nation. 
(8) Mercy Ships has taught over 198,000 local 
people in basic health care. 
(9) Mercy Ships has completed over 1,100 in-
frastructure development projects focusing on water 
and sanitation education, agriculture and construc-
tion projects which improve local health care delivery 
systems. 
(10) Annually, Mercy Ships has over 1,600 vol-
unteers who help in locations around the world, 900 
of which serve in Africa. At any given time, there 
are more than 400 crew from 40 nations onboard 
the Africa Mercy. 
(11) The Africa Mercy alone has had over 
4,900 crew from 74 countries serve onboard since its 
inception in 2007. In addition, more than 950 local 
Day Workers from 12 different countries have 
served alongside since it first docked in Africa. 
(12) Mercy Ships has served some of the 
world’s poorest populations and completed over 589 
port visits in 55 developing nations and 18 developed 
nations for a total of 73 nations including: Aus-
tralia, Bahamas, Benin, Belgium, Belize, Brazil, 
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