S3271-118

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Hmong Congressional Gold Medal Act.

2. Findings The Congress finds the following: As the Vietnam war spread south and west into Laos, the Central Intelligence Agency recruited and trained Hmong tribesmen to fight back against the communist North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao. Over 30,000 Hmong men fought the ground war, flew combat missions, gathered intelligence on North Vietnamese troop movements, interrupted the Ho-Chi-Min Supply Trail, and rescued American pilots downed behind enemy lines. The Hmong people suffered heavy casualties, and their soldiers died at a rate ten times as high as that of American soldiers in Vietnam. Following the Vietnam war, many Hmong were displaced from their villages as they were either bombed or burned down by the North Vietnamese and over 150,000 Hmong fled Laos when the nation fell to communist forces on May 14, 1975. Due to their ties to the American military, many Hmong who fled Laos came to the United States as refugees to start a new life. Currently, there are over 327,000 Hmong living in the United States.

3. Congressional gold medal The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the award, on behalf of Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design to the Hmong people, in recognition of their highly distinguished service in the Vietnam war and the fight against communism. For purposes of the award 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. Following the award of the gold medal under subsection (a), the gold medal shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where it shall be available for display as appropriate and made available for research. It is the sense of Congress that the Smithsonian Institution should make the gold medal received under paragraph (1) available for display elsewhere, particularly at other appropriate locations associated with the service of the Hmong people in the Vietnam war, and that preference should be given to locations affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution.

4. Duplicate medals The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal struck under section 3, at a price sufficient to cover the costs of the medals, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses.

5. Status of medals The medals struck pursuant to this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code. For purposes of section 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items.