[109th Congress Public Law 395]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
[DOCID: f:publ395.109]
[[Page 2707]]
CONGRESSIONAL TRIBUTE TO
DR. NORMAN E. BORLAUG ACT OF 2006
[[Page 120 STAT. 2708]]
Public Law 109-395
109th Congress
An Act
To award a congressional gold medal to Dr. Norman E.
Borlaug. <<NOTE: Dec. 14, 2006 - [S. 2250]>>
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, <<NOTE: Congressional
Tribute to Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Act of 2006. 31 USC 5111 note.>>
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.
[[Page 120 STAT. 2709]]
(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.
[[Page 120 STAT. 2710]]
(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.
Approved December 14, 2006.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY--S. 2250:
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 152 (2006):
Sept. 27, considered and passed Senate.
Dec. 6, considered and passed House.
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