Private Corrado Piccoli Purple Heart Preservation Act

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2911 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2911

To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide for penalties for the 
   sale of any Purple Heart awarded to a member of the Armed Forces.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 22, 2019

 Mr. Cook (for himself, Mrs. Murphy, Ms. Norton, Mr. Castro of Texas, 
 Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, Ms. Judy Chu of California, Mr. Takano, 
Mr. Kelly of Mississippi, Mr. Calvert, and Ms. Stefanik) introduced the 
  following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide for penalties for the 
   sale of any Purple Heart awarded to a member of the Armed Forces.

    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 ``Private Corrado Piccoli Purple Heart 
Preservation Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Purple Heart medal solemnly recognizes the great 
        and sometimes ultimate sacrifice of American servicemembers 
        like Private Corrado Piccoli.
            (2) The Purple Heart medal holds a place of honor as the 
        national symbol of this sacrifice and deserves special 
        protections.

SEC. 3. PENALTY FOR SALE OF PURPLE HEARTS AWARDED TO MEMBERS OF THE 
              ARMED FORCES.

    Section 704 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a), by striking ``Whoever'' and 
        inserting ``Except as provided in subsection (e), whoever''; 
        and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(e) Purple Heart.--
            ``(1) Penalty.--Whoever willfully purchases, attempts to 
        purchase, solicits for purchase, mails, ships, imports, 
        exports, produces blank certificates of receipt for, 
        manufactures, sells, attempts to sell, advertises for sale, 
        trades, barters, or exchanges for anything of value any Purple 
        Heart awarded to a member of the armed forces or former member 
        of the armed forces by the Secretary of the military department 
        concerned, except when authorized under regulations made 
        pursuant to law, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned 
        not more than 6 months, or both.
            ``(2) Limitation on regulations.--Regulations described in 
        paragraph (1) may not authorize the sale of any Purple Heart 
        awarded to a member of the armed forces or former member of the 
        armed forces by the Secretary of the military department 
        concerned, unless the sale is conducted by the member or former 
        member to whom the Purple Heart was awarded.
            ``(3) Definition.--In this subsection, the term `willfully' 
        means the voluntary, intentional violation of a known legal 
        duty.''.
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