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 Naturalization Act of 1965.
Bill: H.R.115 | Sponsor: Rep. Jackson Lee, Sheila (D-TX)
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics

Summary:
This bill directs the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate to arrange for the posthumous award of a Congressional Gold Medal to President Lyndon B. Johnson in recognition of his contributions to the nation.
The bill requires such medal to be given to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum following its award, where it will be available for display and research.

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 Naturalization Act of 1965.

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

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (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 accomplishments 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 American 
        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, 
        reduced 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 secured passage and 
        signed into law the most sweeping civil rights legislation 
        since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which 
        prohibits discrimination in employment, education, and public 
        accommodations 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 immigration system by abolishing the 
        racially based quota system that had defined American 
        immigration policy 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 preeminent biographer 
        of Lyndon Baines Johnson, with the single exception of Lincoln, 
        President Johnson was the greatest champion of the poor and 
        underprivileged in the history of the Republic and was the 
        President ``who wrote mercy and justice into the statute books 
        by which America was governed''.

SEC. 2. 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 award, on behalf of 
Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design to Lyndon Baines 
Johnson in recognition of his contributions to the Nation, including 
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 ``Secretary'') shall strike a gold medal with suitable 
emblems, devices, and inscriptions to be determined by the Secretary.
    (c) Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum.--
            (1) In general.--Following the award of the gold medal 
        under subsection (a), the gold medal shall be given to the 
        Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, where it will be 
        available for display as appropriate and available for 
        research.
            (2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of the Congress 
        that the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum should make 
        the gold medal awarded pursuant to this Act available for 
        display elsewhere, particularly at appropriate locations 
        associated with Lyndon Baines Johnson.

SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

    The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold 
medal struck pursuant to section 2 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. 4. 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 sections 5134 and 5136 of 
title 31, United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be 
considered to be numismatic items.
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