I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 754 
To award the Congressional Gold Medal to Anwar Sadat in recognition 
of his heroic achievements and courageous contributions to peace in 
the Middle East. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 31, 2017 
Mr. STEWART (for himself and Ms. MENG) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To award the Congressional Gold Medal to Anwar Sadat 
in recognition of his heroic achievements and courageous 
contributions to peace in the Middle East. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Anwar Sadat Centen-
nial Celebration Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Anwar Sadat was born on December 25, 
1918, in Mit Abu al-Kum, al-Minufiyah, Egypt, as 
1 of 13 children in a poor Egyptian family. 
(2) In 1938, Sadat graduated from the Royal 
Military Academy in Cairo and was appointed to the 
Signal Corps. 
(3) Sadat entered the Army as a second lieuten-
ant and was posted to Sudan where he met Gamal 
Abdel Nasser and fellow junior officers who became 
the ‘‘Free Officers’’ who led the Egyptian revolution 
of 1952. 
(4) Sadat held various high positions during 
Nasser’s presidency, assuming the role of President 
of the National Assembly in 1960 and Vice Presi-
dent in 1964. 
(5) President Nasser died of a heart attack on 
September 28, 1970, at which point Sadat became 
acting President. Sadat was subsequently elected as 
the third President of Egypt. 
(6) On October 6, 1973, President Sadat, along 
with his Syrian counterparts, launched an offensive 
against Israel. A permanent cease-fire was reached 
on October 25, 1973. 
(7) In 1974, after talks facilitated by Secretary 
of State Henry Kissinger, Egypt and Israel signed 
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an agreement allowing Egypt to formally retrieve 
land in the Sinai. President Sadat later wrote in his 
memoirs that his meetings with Kissinger ‘‘marked 
the beginning of a relationship of mutual under-
standing with the United States culminating and 
crystallizing in what we came to describe as a ‘peace 
process’. Together we started that process and the 
United States still supports our joint efforts to this 
day’’. 
(8) Months of diplomacy between Egypt and 
Israel followed the signing of this initial agreement 
and a second disengagement agreement, the Sinai 
Interim Agreement, was signed in September of 
1975. 
(9) President Sadat addressed a joint session of 
Congress on November 5, 1975, during which he un-
derscored the shared values between the United 
States and Egypt. In this speech, President Sadat 
addressed the path to peace, saying, ‘‘We are faced, 
together with other nations, with one of the greatest 
challenges of our time, namely the task of convincing 
this generation, and those to follow, that we can fi-
nally build a viable international system capable of 
meeting the demands of tomorrow and solving the 
problems of the coming age’’. 
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(10) On November 19, 1977, President Sadat 
became the first Arab leader to visit Israel, meeting 
with the Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin. 
President Sadat spoke before the Israeli Knesset in 
Jerusalem about his views on how to achieve com-
prehensive peace in the Arab-Israeli conflict. 
(11) Before commencing negotiations, President 
Sadat courageously announced to the Knesset, ‘‘I 
have come to you so that together we might build a 
durable peace based on justice, to avoid the shedding 
of 1 single drop of blood from an Arab or an Israeli. 
It is for this reason that I have proclaimed my read-
iness to go to the farthest corner of the world’’. 
President Sadat further poignantly stated that ‘‘any 
life lost in war is a human life, irrespective of its 
being that of an Israeli or an Arab. . . . When the 
bells of peace ring, there will be no hands to beat 
the drums of war’’. 
(12) On September 17, 1978, President Jimmy 
Carter hosted President Sadat and Prime Minister 
Begin at Camp David where the 3 leaders engaged 
in 13 days of negotiations that resulted in the 
‘‘Framework for Peace in the Middle East’’ (com-
monly known as the ‘‘Camp David Accords’’). 
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(13) Following negotiations, President Sadat 
and Prime Minister Begin signed the Egypt-Israel 
Peace Treaty (in this section referred to as the 
‘‘Peace Treaty’’) at the White House on March 26, 
1979. Addressing President Sadat at the signing of 
the Peace Treaty, which remains an important an-
chor for peace in the region today, Prime Minister 
Begin commended President Sadat by saying, ‘‘In 
the face of adversity and hostility, you have dem-
onstrated the human value that can change his-
tory—civil courage’’. 
(14) The Peace Treaty featured mutual rec-
ognition of each country by the other and ultimately 
the cessation of the state of war that had existed be-
tween Israel and Egypt since the 1948 Arab-Israeli 
War. Israel completely withdrew its armed forces 
and civilians from the rest of the Sinai. 
(15) In 1978, both President Sadat and Prime 
Minister Begin were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 
for signing the Peace Treaty, which made Egypt the 
first Arab country to officially recognize Israel. 
(16) While presenting the Nobel Peace Prize to 
President Sadat, Aase Lionaes, Chairman of the 
Norwegian Nobel Committee, said, ‘‘During the 30 
preceding years, the peoples of the Middle East 
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have, on 4 separate occasions, been the victims of 
warfare and there seemed no prospect of peace. 
President Sadat’s great contribution to peace was 
that he had sufficient courage and foresight to break 
away from this vicious circle. His decision to accept 
Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s invitation of No-
vember 17, 1977, to attend a meeting of the Israeli 
parliament on November 19 was an act of great 
courage, both from a personal and from a political 
point of view. This was a dramatic break with the 
past and a courageous step forward into a new age’’. 
(17) During his Nobel lecture, President Sadat 
remarked, ‘‘I made my trip because I am convinced 
that we owe it to this generation and the generations 
to come not to leave a stone unturned in our pursuit 
of peace’’. 
(18) In remarks to the People’s Assembly in 
Cairo on March 10, 1979, President Carter praised 
President Sadat, telling the Assembly, ‘‘Your Presi-
dent has demonstrated the power of human courage 
and human vision to create hope where there had 
been only despair.’’. President Carter also said that 
the Peace Treaty would ‘‘strengthen cooperation be-
tween Egypt and the United States’’ and under-
scored the support of the United States for the 
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agreement, saying, ‘‘I fully share and will support 
President Sadat’s belief that stability must be main-
tained in this part of the world . . . He and I recog-
nize that the security of this vital region is being 
challenged. I applaud his determination to meet that 
challenge, and my Government will stand with him’’. 
(19) The signing of the Peace Treaty enraged 
many individuals who opposed normalized relations 
with Israel. President Sadat was assassinated on Oc-
tober 6, 1981, by Khalid Islambouli, a member of 
Egyptian Islamic Jihad. President Sadat was well 
aware of the controversy to which his actions would 
lead, but pushed for peace anyway. 
(20) Upon the death of President Sadat, Presi-
dent Ronald Reagan proclaimed, ‘‘President Sadat 
was a courageous man whose vision and wisdom 
brought nations and people together. In a world 
filled with hatred, he was a man of hope. In a world 
trapped in the animosities of the past, he was a man 
of foresight, a man who sought to improve a world 
tormented by malice and pettiness’’. 
(21) President Sadat is recognized in the 
United States and throughout the world as a re-
spected leader and champion of peace whose vision 
provided a roadmap for the peaceful resolution of 
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conflict that endures nearly 40 years after its incep-
tion. 
(22) President Sadat bravely reached out to 
Israel and dedicated himself to peace, furthering the 
national security of Egypt and the stability of the 
Middle East. 
(23) On the 30th anniversary of the Peace 
Treaty, President Barack Obama praised the endur-
ing legacy of the Camp David Accords and the 
‘‘courage and foresight of these leaders, who stood 
together in unity to change the course of our shared 
history’’. 
President 
Obama 
closed 
by 
saying, 
‘‘Today, as we seek to expand the circle of peace 
among Arabs and Israelis, we take inspiration from 
what Israel and Egypt achieved 3 decades ago, 
knowing that the destination is worthy of the strug-
gle’’. 
(24) The Camp David Accords and the Peace 
Treaty continue to serve the interests of the United 
States by preserving peace and serving as a founda-
tion for partnership and dialogue in a region fraught 
with conflict and division. 
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 
(a) AWARD
AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of the 
House of Representatives and the President pro tempore 
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of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the 
posthumous award, on behalf of Congress, of a gold medal 
of appropriate design to Anwar Sadat in recognition of 
his achievements and heroic actions to attain comprehen-
sive peace in the Middle East. 
(b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For the purpose of the 
award 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. 
(c) PRESENTATION.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The gold medal referred to 
in subsection (a) shall be presented to— 
(A)(i) the widow of Anwar Sadat, Jehan 
Sadat; or 
(ii) if Jehan Sadat is unavailable, the next 
of kin of Jehan Sadat; and 
(B) a representative of the Government of 
Egypt. 
(2) AWARD OF MEDAL.—Following the presen-
tation described in paragraph (1), the gold medal 
shall be given to— 
(A) Jehan Sadat; or 
(B) if Jehan Sadat is unavailable, the next 
of kin of Jehan Sadat. 
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SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 
bronze of the gold medal struck under section 3 under 
such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, at a price 
sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, mate-
rials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, and 
the cost of the gold medal. 
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 
(a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—The medals struck under 
this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 
of title 31, United States Code. 
(b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of sections 
5134 and 5136 of title 31, United States Code, all medals 
struck under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic 
items. 
Æ 
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