[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2250 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]
S.2250
One Hundred Ninth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
the third day of January, two thousand and six
An Act
To award a congressional gold medal to Dr. Norman E. Borlaug.
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 ``Congressional Tribute to Dr. Norman
E. Borlaug Act of 2006''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds as follows:
(1) Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, was born in Iowa where he grew up on
a family farm, and received his primary and secondary education.
(2) Dr. Borlaug attended the University of Minnesota where he
received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees and was also a star NCAA
wrestler.
(3) For the past 20 years, Dr. Borlaug has lived in Texas where
he is a member of the faculty of Texas A&M University.
(4) Dr. Borlaug also serves as President of the Sasakawa Africa
Association.
(5) Dr. Borlaug's accomplishments in terms of bringing radical
change to world agriculture and uplifting humanity are without
parallel.
(6) In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Dr. Borlaug
spent 20 years working in the poorest areas of rural Mexico. It was
there that Dr. Borlaug made his breakthrough achievement in
developing a strand of wheat that could exponentially increase
yields while actively resisting disease.
(7) With the active support of the governments involved, Dr.
Borlaug's ``green revolution'' uplifted hundreds of thousands of
the rural poor in Mexico and saved hundreds of millions from famine
and outright starvation in India and Pakistan.
(8) Dr. Borlaug's approach to wheat production next spread
throughout the Middle East. Soon thereafter his approach was
adapted to rice growing, increasing the number of lives Dr. Borlaug
has saved to more than a billion people.
(9) In 1970, Dr. Borlaug received the Nobel Prize, the only
person working in agriculture to ever be so honored. Since then he
has received numerous honors and awards including the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, the Public Service Medal, the National Academy of
Sciences' highest honor, and the Rotary International Award for
World Understanding and Peace.
(10) At age 91, Dr. Borlaug continues to work to alleviate
poverty and malnutrition. He currently serves as president of
Sasakawa Global 2000 Africa Project, which seeks to extend the
benefits of agricultural development to the 800,000,000 people
still mired in poverty and malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa.
(11) Dr. Borlaug continues to serve as Chairman of the Council
of Advisors of the World Food Prize, an organization he created in
1986 to be the ``Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture'' and which
presents a $250,000 prize each October at a Ceremony in Des Moines,
Iowa, to the Laureate who has made an exceptional achievement
similar to Dr. Borlaug's breakthrough 40 years ago. In the almost
20 years of its existence, the World Food Prize has honored
Laureates from Bangladesh, India, China, Mexico, Denmark, Sierra
Leone, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
(12) Dr. Borlaug has saved more lives than any other person who
has ever lived, and likely has saved more lives in the Islamic
world than any other human being in history.
(13) Due to a lifetime of work that has led to the saving and
preservation of an untold amount of lives, Dr. Norman E. Borlaug is
deserving of America's highest civilian award: the congressional
gold medal.
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.
(a) Presentation Authorized.--The President Pro Tempore of the
Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives are authorized
to make appropriate arrangements for the presentation, on behalf of
Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design, to Dr. Norman E.
Borlaug, in recognition of his enduring contributions to the United
States and the world.
(b) Design and Striking.--For the purpose of the presentation
referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (in this
Act referred to as the ``Secretary'') shall strike a gold medal with
suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the
Secretary.
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.
Under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the
Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal
struck under section 3 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 AS NATIONAL MEDALS.
(a) National Medal.--The medal struck under this Act is a national
medal 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 duplicate medals struck under this Act shall be
considered to be numismatic items.
SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF SALE.
(a) Authority To Use Fund Amounts.--There are authorized to be
charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund, such
sums as may be necessary to pay for the cost of the medals struck under
this Act.
(b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate
bronze medals under section 4 shall be deposited in the United States
Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.