I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 115 
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th 
President of the United States whose visionary leadership secured pas-
sage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, Social Security Amend-
ments Act (Medicare) of 1965, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Higher Edu-
cation Act of 1965, and Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 4, 2021 
Ms. JACKSON LEE introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Lyndon Baines 
Johnson, the 36th President of the United States whose 
visionary leadership secured passage of the landmark 
Voting Rights Act of 1965, Social Security Amendments 
Act (Medicare) of 1965, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Higher 
Education Act of 1965, and Immigration and Naturaliza-
tion Act of 1965. 
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: 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:26 Jan 23, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H115.IH
H115
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
(1) As a Member of Congress from the Tenth 
Congressional District of Texas, as majority leader 
of the U.S. Senate, Vice President and President of 
the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson’s accom-
plishments in the fields of civil rights, education, 
and economic opportunity rank among the greatest 
achievements of the past half century. 
(2) As President, Lyndon Johnson proposed, 
championed, led to passage, and signed into law on 
August 6, 1965, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 
which swept away barriers impeding millions of 
Americans from meaningful participation in Amer-
ican political life. 
(3) On July 30, 1965, President Johnson 
signed into law the Social Security Amendments Act 
of 1965, popularly known as Medicare, which has 
transformed the delivery of health care in the United 
States and which, along with Social Security, re-
duced the rate of poverty among the elderly from 
28.5 percent in 1966 to 9.1 percent in 2012. 
(4) On July 2, 1964, President Johnson se-
cured passage and signed into law the most sweep-
ing civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the 
Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimina-
tion in employment, education, and public accom-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:26 Jan 23, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H115.IH
H115
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
modations based on race, color, religion, or national 
origin. 
(5) On November 8, 1965, President Johnson 
signed into law the Higher Education Act, which 
provided need-based financial aid to students in the 
form of scholarships, work-study grants, and loans, 
and thus made higher education more accessible to 
populations of persons who were previously unable to 
attend college because of economic circumstances. 
(6) On October 3, 1965, President Johnson 
signed into law the Immigration and Naturalization 
Act of 1965, which transformed the Nation’s immi-
gration system by abolishing the racially based quota 
system that had defined American immigration pol-
icy for four decades and replaced it with a policy 
whose central purpose was family reunification, with 
a preference for immigrants with specific skill sets. 
(7) According to Robert A. Caro, the pre-
eminent biographer of Lyndon Baines Johnson, with 
the single exception of Lincoln, President Johnson 
was the greatest champion of the poor and under-
privileged in the history of the Republic and was the 
President ‘‘who wrote mercy and justice into the 
statute books by which America was governed’’. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:26 Jan 23, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H115.IH
H115
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
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 
for the posthumous award, on behalf of Congress, of a 
gold medal of appropriate design to Lyndon Baines John-
son in recognition of his contributions to the Nation, in-
cluding passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 
1965, the Social Security Amendments Act (Medicare) of 
1965, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Higher Education 
Act of 1965, and the Immigration and Naturalization Act 
of 1965. 
(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 ‘‘Sec-
retary’’) shall strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, 
devices, and inscriptions to be determined by the Sec-
retary. 
(c) LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON LIBRARY AND MU-
SEUM.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Following the award of the 
gold medal under subsection (a), the gold medal 
shall be given to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Li-
brary and Museum, where it will be available for dis-
play as appropriate and available for research. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
03:26 Jan 23, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H115.IH
H115
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS