I
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4384
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
MAY 4, 2000
Mr. JEFFERSON (for himself, Mr. TAUZIN, Mr. MCCRERY, Mr. BAKER, Mr.
JOHN, Mr. COOKSEY, and Mr. VITTER) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Banking and 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 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
never could have gone in over an open beach. We
would have had to change the entire strategy of the
war.’’
(8) Together, Andrew Jackson Higgins and the
employees of Higgins Industries provided a decisive
and essential contribution to the United States and
Allied victory in World War II while practicing racial
and gender workplace equality far in advance of the
norm for the time.
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDALS.
(a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The President is
authorized to present, on behalf of the Congress—
(1) a gold medal of appropriate design to the
family of Andrew Jackson Higgins in recognition of
his contributions to the Nation and to the Allied vic-
tory in World War II;
(2) a gold medal identical to the medal referred
to in paragraph (1) to the D-Day Museum in New
Orleans, Louisiana, for public display; and
(3) a gold medal of appropriate design to the
D-Day Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, in honor
of the World War II employees of Higgins Industries
and in recognition of their contributions to the Na-
tion and to the Allied victory in World War II.
(b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For the purpose of the
presentations referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary
of the Treasury (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the
‘‘Secretary’’) shall strike gold medals 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 medals struck under section 2 at a price
sufficient to cover the costs of the duplicate bronze medals
(including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and
overhead expenses) and the cost of the gold medals.
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. FUNDING AND PROCEEDS OF SALE.
(a) AUTHORIZATION.—There is hereby authorized to
be charged against the United States Mint Public Enter-
prise Fund an amount not to exceed $60,000 to pay for
the cost of the medals authorized by 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.
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