Norman Yoshio Mineta Congressional Gold Medal Act
This bill directs the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate to arrange for the presentation of a Congressional Gold Medal to Norman Yoshio Mineta in recognition of his dedication to public service, civic engagement, and civil rights.
[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6322 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
114th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 6322
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Norman Yoshio Mineta in
recognition of his courageous, principled dedication to public service,
civic engagement, and civil rights.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 15, 2016
Mr. Honda (for himself, Mr. Royce, Mr. Bera, Ms. Bordallo, Mr. Brady of
Pennsylvania, Mr. Calvert, Mr. Carter of Georgia, Mr. Castro of Texas,
Mr. Chabot, Ms. Judy Chu of California, Mr. Costa, Mr. Dent, Mr.
DeSaulnier, Ms. Eshoo, Mr. Farr, Mr. Fleischmann, Mr. Garamendi, Mr. Al
Green of Texas, Mr. Hanna, Mr. Harper, Mr. Heck of Nevada, Mr. Hill,
Mr. LaMalfa, Ms. Lee, Mr. Ted Lieu of California, Ms. Lofgren, Mr.
Lowenthal, Mrs. Lummis, Mr. Marino, Ms. Matsui, Mr. McKinley, Ms. Meng,
Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. Nunes, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Salmon, Mr. Shuster,
Mr. Smith of Missouri, Mr. Swalwell of California, Mr. Takano, Mr.
Thompson of California, Mr. Valadao, Mr. Vargas, Mrs. Mimi Walters of
California, Mr. Young of Alaska, Mr. Reichert, Ms. Gabbard, and Mr.
Farenthold) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Financial Services
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Norman Yoshio Mineta in
recognition of his courageous, principled dedication to public service,
civic engagement, and civil rights.
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 ``Norman Yoshio Mineta Congressional
Gold Medal Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Norman Yoshio Mineta was born November 12, 1931, in San
Jose, California, to immigrant parents, Kunisaku and Kane
Mineta, from Shizouka prefecture in Japan.
(2) In 1942, Mineta and his family were forcibly relocated
to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming. They were
among 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom
were natural-born United States citizens, sent to internment
camps by the United States Government during the Second World
War.
(3) After graduating from the University of California at
Berkeley, Mineta served as an intelligence officer for the
United States Army in Korea and Japan from 1953 to 1956. Mineta
then joined his father's insurance business located in San
Jose's Japantown.
(4) In 1966, Mineta accepted an appointment to the San Jose
Housing Authority, believing community involvement to be
essential to civic life and the full integration of Japanese
Americans into his hometown. He became a City Councilmember one
year later.
(5) Mineta was elected Mayor of San Jose in 1971, becoming
the first Asian American mayor of a major American city in the
continental United States. As Mayor, he worked to economically
develop San Jose as ``Silicon Valley'' was forming, and also
strengthened community relations by engaging racial and ethnic
minorities through San Jose City departments and agencies,
including the San Jose Police Department.
(6) From 1975 to 1995, Mineta served as a Member of the
U.S. House of Representatives, representing the heart of Santa
Clara County and Silicon Valley. He served on numerous
committees, including the Budget, Intelligence, and Science
committees. He served longest on the House Public Works and
Transportation Committee, now known as the Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee, including as Committee Chairman.
(7) In 1978, Mineta, along with Representative Frank Horton
(R-NY), introduced a bipartisan joint resolution authorizing
and requesting the President to proclaim the 7-day period
beginning on May 4, 1979, as ``Asian/Pacific American Heritage
Week''. May is the month when the first Japanese immigrants
arrived in the United States in 1843, and also when Chinese
laborers completed the transcontinental railroad in 1869. The
resolution became public law that year, and was later expanded
to recognize the month of May as Asian Pacific American
Heritage Month.
(8) In 1987, Mineta had the honor of signing the Civil
Liberties Act which offered an official apology and redress for
the grave injustices committed against Americans of Japanese
ancestry during World War II, on behalf of the House of
Representatives when acting as Speaker Pro Tempore. In a
culmination of a 10-year bipartisan effort, President Ronald
Reagan signed the bill into law as Public Law 100-383 on August
10, 1988.
(9) Throughout his tenure in the House of Representatives,
Mineta was a strong advocate for transportation laws which made
air travel safer and aviation and transit systems more
accessible to Americans with disabilities. He also authored the
Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, which
gave State, local, and regional governments greater control
over the use of Federal dollars in their communities.
(10) Mineta co-founded the Congressional Asian Pacific
American Caucus and the Asian Pacific American Institute for
Congressional Studies in 1994, which today continue to promote
the well-being and full participation of these communities in
American civic life.
(11) In 2000, Mineta became the first Asian American to
serve in a Presidential Cabinet as the Secretary of Commerce
under President William J. Clinton.
(12) In 2001, Mineta continued his dedication to public
service and bipartisanship by serving as Secretary of
Transportation under President George W. Bush.
(13) Mineta was at the helm of the Department of
Transportation on the day of the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks. In the aftermath of the attacks and through the end of
his tenure as Secretary of Transportation, he ushered in
critical reforms to the Nation's transportation and security
screening networks.
(14) In 2001, the San Jose City Council announced that the
City's airport was to be renamed the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose
International Airport.
(15) Mineta received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the
highest civilian award in the United States, in 2006 from
President George W. Bush, and the Grand Cordon, Order of the
Rising Sun, from the Government of Japan, which is the highest
honor bestowed upon an individual outside of Japan.
(16) Having personally experienced the wrongful indignity
of internment as a child by his own government, Norman Yoshio
Mineta has dedicated his life to public service, to his
community, and to his country, and has done so with exemplary
dignity and integrity.
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 presentation, on behalf of the
Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design to Norman Yoshio
Mineta, in recognition of his courageous, principled dedication to
public service, civic engagement, and civil rights.
(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.
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.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
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