Hazel M. Johnson Congressional Gold Medal Act
Bill: H.R.674 | Sponsor: Rep. Rush, Bobby L. (D-IL)
Policy area: Environmental Protection

Summary:
Hazel M. Johnson Congressional Gold Medal Act
This bill provides for a Congressional Gold Medal to be awarded posthumously to Hazel M. Johnson in recognition of her achievements and contributions to the environmental justice movement.

To award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Hazel M. Johnson, 
      in recognition of her achievements and contributions to the 
                    environmental justice movement.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Hazel M. Johnson Congressional Gold 
Medal Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Hazel Johnson fought for environmental justice in 
        Chicago beginning in the 1970s and continuing through the rest 
        of her life.
            (2) When Johnson discovered that the South Side of Chicago 
        had the highest cancer rate of any area in Chicago, she was 
        inspired to investigate the cancer rates, foul odors, and 
        number of children with respiratory illnesses in her own 
        neighborhood, the community of Altgeld Gardens on the South 
        Side of Chicago.
            (3) She discovered her community, Altgeld Gardens, which is 
        a public housing project, was built on a landfill surrounded by 
        toxicity, which polluted the air, water, and land.
            (4) Additionally, the Altgeld Gardens homes had asbestos 
        and elevated lead levels.
            (5) This discovery inspired Johnson to create the People 
        for Community Recovery, an organization which fights for a 
        safer environment.
            (6) Johnson and the People for Community Recovery fought to 
        educate and empower the residents of Altgeld Gardens, including 
        providing workshops and trainings, conducting health surveys, 
        rallying residents to protest contamination, and working with 
        youth in the community.
            (7) The People for Community Recovery put pressure on the 
        Chicago Housing Authority to remove asbestos from Altgeld 
        Gardens.
            (8) Johnson's fight for clean water led to the installation 
        of water and sewer lines by city health officials in the far 
        South Side neighborhood of Maryland Manor, where the existing 
        well water was contaminated with cyanide and other toxins.
            (9) Johnson used her vigilance and activism to give low-
        income minority communities a voice and a stake in the 
        environmental justice fight by bringing the conversation to 
        personal, immediate, and urgent concerns which directly impact 
        communities inhabited by people of color.
            (10) Johnson also strove to hold both businesses and the 
        government responsible for how their actions impact the 
        environment.
            (11) Johnson was given the 1992 President's Environment and 
        Conservation Challenge Award in recognition of her 
        environmental justice work.
            (12) Notably, Johnson was instrumental in pressuring 
        President Bill Clinton to sign the Environmental Justice 
        Executive Order, which holds the Federal Government accountable 
        for urban communities exposed to pollution.
            (13) In 2004, sociologist David Naguib Pellow credited 
        Johnson and the People for Community Recovery with putting 
        ``the South Side of Chicago on the radar screen for activists 
        and policy makers around the United States who are concerned 
        about environmental racism''.
            (14) On January 12, 2011, the Illinois General Assembly, by 
        way of a House Joint Resolution, designated ``the portion of 
        130th Street from the Bishop Ford Freeway to State Street in 
        Chicago as the `Hazel Johnson EJ Way'''.
            (15) Johnson was a visionary, who was able to foresee the 
        impacts of failing to address environmental and social justice 
        conditions.
            (16) Johnson's work earned her the title of ``mother of the 
        environmental justice movement''.

SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

    (a) Presentation Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of 
Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make 
appropriate arrangements for the posthumous presentation, on behalf of 
the Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design in commemoration to 
Hazel M. Johnson, in recognition of her achievements and contributions 
to the environmental justice movement.
    (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 ``Secretary'') shall strike a gold medal with suitable 
emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary.
    (c) National Museum of African American History and Culture.--
            (1) In general.--Following the award of the gold medal 
        under subsection (a), the gold medal shall be given to the 
        National Museum of African American History and Culture of the 
        Smithsonian Institution, where it shall be available for 
        display as appropriate and made available for research.
            (2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that 
        the gold medal received under paragraph (1) should be made 
        available for display elsewhere, particularly at other 
        appropriate locations associated with Hazel M. Johnson.

SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

    The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold 
medal struck pursuant to section 3 under such regulations as the 
Secretary may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the cost 
thereof, including labor, materials, 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 pursuant to this Act are 
national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States 
Code.
    (b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of section 5134 of title 31, 
United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be 
considered to be numismatic items.
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