I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2648 
To authorize the President to award a gold medal on behalf of Congress 
to Muhammad Ali in recognition of his contributions to the Nation. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 2, 2009 
Mr. CARSON of Indiana (for himself, Mr. PASCRELL, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. 
CUMMINGS, Mr. MEEKS of New York, Ms. NORTON, Mr. DAVIS of Illi-
nois, Mr. PAYNE, Ms. FUDGE, Mrs. CHRISTENSEN, Mr. FATTAH, Mr. AL 
GREEN of Texas, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, 
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, 
Ms. WATSON, Mr. TOWNS, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. DAVIS 
of Alabama, Mr. HONDA, Mr. MORAN of Virginia, Mr. BACA, Ms. 
CORRINE BROWN of Florida, Mr. MCGOVERN, and Ms. KILPATRICK of 
Michigan) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To authorize the President to award a gold medal on behalf 
of Congress to Muhammad Ali in recognition of his con-
tributions to the Nation. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., on Janu-
ary 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky, Muhammad 
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Ali was the first child of Cassius, Sr. and Odessa 
Clay. 
(2) Muhammad Ali is one of the most cele-
brated athletes of the 20th century. He has pro-
duced some of America’s greatest sports memories, 
from winning a gold medal at the 1960 Summer 
Olympics to lighting the Olympic torch at the 1996 
Summer Olympics. 
(3) After an impressive amateur career, during 
which he recorded 131 wins and only 7 losses and 
won 2 National AAU light heavyweight titles, Mu-
hammad Ali became the first professional boxer in 
history to capture the heavyweight title 3 separate 
times. 
(4) Muhammad Ali defeated every challenger he 
faced in the ring. But on April 28, 1967, he was 
stripped of his boxing title and barred from com-
peting for being a conscientious objector to the war 
in Vietnam on religious and moral grounds. How-
ever, following a unanimous United States Supreme 
Court decision in 1971, Muhammad Ali’s conscien-
tious objector status was confirmed, his boxing li-
cense was reinstated, and he was cleared of any 
wrong doing. 
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(5) As an African-American and a Muslim liv-
ing in an era that continued to question his civil 
rights, Muhammad Ali battled issues of race and re-
ligion, and has received recognition as one of the 
champions of the Civil Rights Movement in the 
United States. 
(6) Muhammad Ali is the recipient of many 
awards for his sporting prowess and his support of 
racial harmony, including the Dr. Martin Luther 
King Memorial Award, the Spirit of America Award, 
the Amnesty International Lifetime Achievement 
Award, the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, the Es-
sence Living Legend Award, the Rainbow Coalition 
Lifetime Achievement Award, the XNBA Human 
Spirit Award, the Presidential Citizens Medal, and 
the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 
(7) Muhammad Ali has been acknowledged by 
many organizations for his achievements both inside 
and outside the boxing ring, including being crowned 
‘‘Sportsman of the Century’’ by Sports Illustrated, 
being named ‘‘Athlete of the Century’’ by GQ maga-
zine, being named ‘‘Sports Personality of the Cen-
tury’’ by the British Broadcasting Corporation, 
being named ‘‘Kentucky Athlete of the Century’’ by 
the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, being named 
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‘‘Kentuckian of the Century’’ by the State of Ken-
tucky, being named ‘‘Louisvillian of the Century’’ by 
the Advertising Club of Louisville, being named 
‘‘Boxer of the Century’’ by the World Sports Awards 
of the Century, being recognized by the Inter-
national Boxing Hall of Fame, and receiving hon-
orary doctorate degrees from Muhlenberg College 
and Western Kentucky University, as well as an 
honorary doctorate of humanities at Princeton Uni-
versity’s 260th graduation ceremony. 
(8) Muhammad Ali received the prestigious 
‘‘Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold’’ from the United 
Nations Association of Germany for his work with 
the United Nations and the Civil Rights Movement 
in the United States. 
(9) Muhammad Ali was selected by the Cali-
fornia Bicentennial Foundation for the U.S. Con-
stitution to personify the vitality of the Bill of 
Rights in various high-profile activities. 
(10) Despite having been diagnosed with Par-
kinson’s Syndrome in the early 1980s, Muhammad 
Ali has dedicated his life to the cause of universal 
human rights and freedom. His commitment to 
equal justice and peace has touched the lives of hun-
dreds of thousands of people worldwide. 
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(11) President Jimmy Carter asked Muhammad 
Ali to meet with African leaders in Tanzania, Kenya, 
Nigeria, Liberia, and Senegal as part of President 
Carter’s diplomatic efforts on behalf of human rights 
in the 1980s. 
(12) In 1990, Muhammad Ali traveled to the 
Middle East to seek the release of American and 
British hostages that were being held as human 
shields in the first Gulf War. As a result of his 
intervention, 15 United States hostages were freed 
on December 2nd. 
(13) Muhammad Ali was chosen as the ‘‘U.N. 
Messenger of Peace’’ in 1998. 
(14) Several Presidents of the United States 
have recognized Muhammad Ali, including President 
George W. Bush who, on November 17, 2002, called 
him ‘‘a man of peace’’ and stated that ‘‘across the 
world, billions of people know Muhammad Ali as a 
brave, compassionate, and charming man, and the 
American people are proud to call Muhammad Ali 
one of our own’’, President Bill Clinton who stated 
that Muhammad Ali ‘‘captured the world’s imagina-
tion and its heart. Outside the ring, Muhammad Ali 
has dedicated his life to working for children, feed-
ing the hungry, supporting his faith, and standing 
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up for racial equality. He has always fought for a 
just and more humane world, breaking down bar-
riers here in America and around the world. There 
are no telling how many tens of millions of people 
had their hearts swell with pride and their eyes swell 
with tears in 1996 when Muhammad Ali lit the 
Olympic torch, because we know, now and forever, 
he is the greatest’’, President Jimmy Carter who 
cited Muhammad Ali as ‘‘Mr. International Friend-
ship’’, and President Barack Obama who, as a Sen-
ator, had a framed picture of Muhammad Ali hang-
ing in his office, and before announcing his inten-
tions to run for President, Obama visited with Mu-
hammad Ali at the Ali Center in Louisville, Ken-
tucky. 
(15) Muhammad Ali continues to encourage hu-
manity through his perseverance and the support of 
thousands of people. He has helped such organiza-
tions as the Chicago-based adoption agency, The 
Cradle; the Make-A-Wish Foundation; the Special 
Olympics’ organization, Best Buddies; and Herbert 
E. Birch Services, an organization that runs a 
school for handicapped children and young adults, in 
addition to a summer camp for children infected 
with AIDS. 
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(16) Muhammad Ali and his wife Lonnie are 
founding directors of the Muhammad Ali Parkinson 
Center in Phoenix, Arizona, and have helped raise 
over $50 million for Parkinson’s research. The Cen-
ter’s mission is to provide excellence in treatment, 
research, and education for patients and families af-
fected by Parkinson’s disease and other movement 
disorders, regardless of ability to pay. 
(17) Muhammad Ali is an inspiration to count-
less individuals with Parkinson’s disease, including 
members of the Rock Steady Boxing Foundation in 
Indianapolis, Indiana, which was founded to give 
people with Parkinson’s disease hope by improving 
their quality of life using boxing for fitness. 
(18) Muhammad Ali is one of the founding 
members of Athletes for Hope, an organization cre-
ated by a few very successful athletes of exemplary 
character who have a deep commitment to charitable 
and community causes. 
(19) Muhammad Ali also established the Mu-
hammad Ali Center in his hometown of Louisville, 
Kentucky, which promotes respect, hope, and under-
standing, and inspires people everywhere to be as 
great as they can be. A visitor of the Muhammad Ali 
Center experiences the ‘‘hows’’ of Ali’s life: how he 
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found the courage, the dedication, and the discipline 
to become who he is today; how he found the convic-
tion to stand up for what he believed; and how he 
turned his passion for excellence in the ring to a 
passion for peace on the world stage. 
(20) Like Muhammad Ali himself, the Muham-
mad Ali Center focuses on what brings individuals 
together, not what sets them apart, and is a ‘‘global 
gathering place’’ to which people can come, both on-
line and in person, to learn, share, and celebrate our 
commonalities as human beings and to formulate 
ways of advancing humanity. 
(21) Muhammad Ali has helped to provide more 
than 22,000,000 aid packets to assist people in 
need, and until recently traveled, on average, more 
than 200 days per year for humanitarian causes. 
(22) Muhammad Ali, known simply as ‘‘the 
greatest’’, has transcended the glamour and glory of 
being a sports champion to become not only one of 
the greatest sports figures, but one of the greatest 
role models of our time. 
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 
(a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of 
the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tem-
pore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements 
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for the presentation, on behalf of Congress, of a gold 
medal of appropriate design, to Muhammad Ali in recogni-
tion of his contributions to the Nation. 
(b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For the purpose of the 
presentation referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary 
of the Treasury (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the 
‘‘Secretary’’) shall strike a gold medal with suitable em-
blems, devices, and inscriptions to be determined by the 
Secretary. 
SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 
Under such regulations as the Secretary may pre-
scribe, the Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 
bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 2 at 
a price sufficient to cover the cost of the bronze medals 
(including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and 
overhead expenses) and the cost of the gold medal. 
SEC. 4. NATIONAL MEDALS. 
The medals struck under this Act are national medals 
for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code. 
SEC. 5. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF 
SALE. 
(a) AUTHORIZATION TO USE FUND AMOUNTS.— 
There is authorized to be charged against the United 
States Mint Public Enterprise Fund, such amounts as 
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may be necessary to pay for the cost of the medals struck 
pursuant to this Act. 
(b) PROCEEDS OF SALE.—Amounts received from the 
sale of duplicate bronze medals under section 3 shall be 
deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise 
Fund. 
Æ 
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