I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 485
To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Muhammad Ali,
in recognition of his contributions to the United States.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY16, 2025
Mr. C
ARSON(for himself, Ms. ADAMS, Mr. BISHOP, Ms. BROWNLEY, Mr. CAR-
TERof Louisiana, Ms. CLARKEof New York, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. COHEN,
Mr. C
OSTA, Ms. DAVIDSof Kansas, Mr. DAVISof Illinois, Mrs. DINGELL,
Mr. D
OGGETT, Mr. EVANSof Pennsylvania, Mr. FROST, Mr. GREENof
Texas, Mrs. H
AYES, Ms. NORTON, Mr. JACKSONof Illinois, Mr. JOHN-
SONof Georgia, Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE, Mr. KEATING, Ms. KELLYof Illi-
nois, Mr. K
RISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. LARSONof Connecticut, Ms. LEEof
Pennsylvania, Mr. L
YNCH, Mr. MCGARVEY, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mrs.
M
CIVER, Mr. MEEKS, Ms. MOOREof Wisconsin, Mr. MRVAN, Mr.
M
ULLIN, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. PRESSLEY, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms.
S
TRICKLAND, Mr. THANEDAR, Mr. THOMPSONof Mississippi, Ms. TLAIB,
Mr. T
ORRESof New York, and Mr. VARGAS) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services
A BILL
To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Mu-
hammad Ali, in recognition of his contributions to the
United States.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Muhammad Ali Con-2
gressional Gold Medal Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4
Congress finds the following: 5
(1) Born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., on Janu-6
ary 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky, Muhammad 7
Ali was the first child of Cassius, Sr., and Odessa 8
Clay. 9
(2) Muhammad Ali was one of the most cele-10
brated athletes of the 20th century. He produced 11
some of the greatest sports memories in the United 12
States, from winning a gold medal at the 1960 Sum-13
mer Olympics to lighting the Olympic torch at the 14
1996 Summer Olympics. 15
(3) After an impressive amateur career, during 16
which he won 2 National AAU light heavyweight ti-17
tles, Muhammad Ali became the first professional 18
boxer in history to capture the heavyweight title 3 19
separate times. 20
(4) On April 28, 1967, he was stripped of his 21
boxing title and barred from competing for being a 22
conscientious objector to the war in Vietnam on reli-23
gious and moral grounds. However, following a 24
unanimous decision by the Supreme Court of the 25
United States in 1971, Muhammad Ali’s conscien-26
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•HR 485 IH
tious objector status was confirmed, his boxing li-1
cense was reinstated, and he was cleared of any 2
wrongdoing. 3
(5) As an African American and a Muslim who 4
lived in an era that continued to question his civil 5
rights, Muhammad Ali battled issues of race and re-6
ligion, and received recognition as one of the cham-7
pions of the Civil Rights Movement in the United 8
States. 9
(6) Muhammad Ali was the recipient of many 10
awards for his sporting prowess and his support of 11
racial harmony, including the Dr. Martin Luther 12
King Memorial Award, the Spirit of America Award, 13
the Amnesty International Lifetime Achievement 14
Award, the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, the Es-15
sence Living Legend Award, the Rainbow Coalition 16
Lifetime Achievement Award, the XNBA Human 17
Spirit Award, the Presidential Citizens Medal, and 18
the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 19
(7) Muhammad Ali was acknowledged by many 20
organizations for his achievements both inside and 21
outside the boxing ring, including being crowned 22
‘‘Sportsman of the Century’’ by Sports Illustrated, 23
being named ‘‘Athlete of the Century’’ by GQ maga-24
zine, being named ‘‘Sports Personality of the Cen-25
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•HR 485 IH
tury’’ by the British Broadcasting Corporation, 1
being named ‘‘Kentucky Athlete of the Century’’ by 2
the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, being named 3
‘‘Kentuckian of the Century’’ by the State of Ken-4
tucky, being named ‘‘Louisvillian of the Century’’ by 5
the Advertising Club of Louisville, being named 6
‘‘Boxer of the Century’’ by the World Sports Awards 7
of the Century, being recognized by the Inter-8
national Boxing Hall of Fame, and receiving hon-9
orary doctorate degrees from Muhlenberg College 10
and Princeton University. 11
(8) Muhammad Ali received the prestigious 12
Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold from the United 13
Nations Association of Germany for his work with 14
the United Nations and the Civil Rights Movement 15
in the United States. 16
(9) Muhammad Ali was selected by the Cali-17
fornia Bicentennial Foundation for the U.S. Con-18
stitution for personifying the vitality of the Bill of 19
Rights in various high-profile activities. 20
(10) Despite having been diagnosed with Par-21
kinson’s disease in the early 1980s, Muhammad Ali 22
dedicated his life to the cause of universal human 23
rights and freedom. His commitment to equal justice 24
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•HR 485 IH
and peace touched the lives of hundreds of thou-1
sands of people worldwide. 2
(11) President Jimmy Carter asked Muhammad 3
Ali to meet with African leaders in Tanzania, Kenya, 4
Nigeria, Liberia, and Senegal as part of the diplo-5
matic efforts of President Carter to promote human 6
rights in the 1980s. 7
(12) In 1990, Muhammad Ali traveled to the 8
Middle East to seek the release of United States and 9
British hostages that were being held as human 10
shields in the first Gulf War. As a result of his 11
intervention, 15 United States hostages were freed 12
on December 2nd of that year. 13
(13) In 1998, Muhammad Ali was chosen as 14
the ‘‘U.N. Messenger of Peace’’. 15
(14) Several Presidents of the United States 16
recognized Muhammad Ali, including President 17
George W. Bush who, on November 17, 2002, called 18
him ‘‘a man of peace’’ and stated that ‘‘across the 19
world, billions of people know Muhammad Ali as a 20
brave, compassionate, and charming man, and the 21
American people are proud to call Muhammad Ali 22
one of our own’’, President Bill Clinton who stated 23
that Muhammad Ali ‘‘captured the world’s imagina-24
tion and its heart. Outside the ring, Muhammad Ali 25
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•HR 485 IH
has dedicated his life to working for children, feed-1
ing the hungry, supporting his faith, and standing 2
up for racial equality. He always fought for a just 3
and more humane world, breaking down barriers 4
here in America and around the world. There is no 5
telling how many tens of millions of people had their 6
hearts swell with pride and their eyes swell with 7
tears in 1996 when Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic 8
torch, because we know, now and forever, he is the 9
greatest’’, President Jimmy Carter who cited Mu-10
hammad Ali as ‘‘Mr. International Friendship’’, and 11
President Barack Obama who, as a Senator, had a 12
framed picture of Muhammad Ali hanging in his of-13
fice, and before announcing his intentions to run for 14
President, Obama visited with Muhammad Ali at the 15
Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky. 16
(15) Muhammad Ali encouraged humanity 17
through his perseverance and the support of thou-18
sands of people. He helped such organizations as the 19
Chicago-based adoption agency, The Cradle, the 20
Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Special Olympics’ or-21
ganization, Best Buddies; and Herbert E. Birch 22
Services, an organization that runs a school for 23
handicapped children and young adults, in addition 24
to a summer camp for children with AIDS. 25
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(16) Muhammad Ali and his wife Lonnie were 1
the founding directors of the Muhammad Ali Par-2
kinson Center in Phoenix, Arizona, and helped raise 3
over $50,000,000 for Parkinson’s research. The 4
Center’s mission is to provide excellence in treat-5
ment, research, and education for patients and fami-6
lies affected by Parkinson’s disease and other move-7
ment disorders, regardless of their ability to pay. 8
(17) Muhammad Ali was an inspiration to 9
countless individuals with Parkinson’s disease, in-10
cluding members of the Rock Steady Boxing Foun-11
dation in Indianapolis, Indiana, which was founded 12
to give people with Parkinson’s disease hope by im-13
proving their quality of life using boxing for fitness. 14
(18) Muhammad Ali was one of the founding 15
members of Athletes for Hope, an organization cre-16
ated by a few very successful athletes of exemplary 17
character who have a deep commitment to charitable 18
and community causes. 19
(19) Muhammad Ali also established the Mu-20
hammad Ali Center in his hometown of Louisville, 21
Kentucky, which promotes respect, hope, and under-22
standing, and inspires people everywhere to be as 23
great as they can be. A visitor of the Muhammad Ali 24
Center experiences the ‘‘hows’’ of Ali’s life: How he 25
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found the courage, the dedication, and the discipline 1
to become a world champion, how he found the con-2
viction to stand up for what he believed, and how he 3
turned his passion for excellence in the ring to a 4
passion for peace on the world stage. 5
(20) Like Muhammad Ali himself, the Muham-6
mad Ali Center focuses on what brings individuals 7
together, not what sets them apart, and is a ‘‘global 8
gathering place’’ to which people can come, both on-9
line and in person, to learn, share, and celebrate our 10
commonalities as human beings and to formulate 11
ways of advancing humanity. 12
(21) Muhammad Ali helped to provide more 13
than 22,000,000 aid packets to assist people in 14
need, and until the last years of his life, he traveled, 15
on average, more than 200 days per year for human-16
itarian causes. 17
(22) Muhammad Ali, known simply as ‘‘the 18
greatest’’, transcended the glamour and glory of 19
being a sports champion to become not only one of 20
the greatest sports figures, but one of the greatest 21
role models of our time. 22
(23) On June 3, 2016, Muhammad Ali died at 23
the age of 74. 24
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SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 1
(a) P
RESENTATIONAUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of 2
the House of Representatives and the President pro tem-3
pore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements 4
for the presentation, on behalf of Congress, of a gold 5
medal of appropriate design to Muhammad Ali, in recogni-6
tion of his contributions to the United States. 7
(b) D
ESIGN ANDSTRIKING.—For the purpose of the 8
presentation described in subsection (a), the Secretary of 9
the Treasury (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’) 10
shall strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, 11
and inscriptions to be determined by the Secretary. 12
(c) T
RANSFER OFMEDALAFTERPRESENTATION.— 13
Following the presentation of the gold medal in honor of 14
Muhammad Ali under subsection (a), the gold medal shall 15
be given to his wife, Lonnie Ali. 16
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 17
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 18
bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 3 at 19
a price sufficient to cover the cost of the medals, including 20
labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead ex-21
penses. 22
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 23
(a) N
ATIONALMEDALS.—Medals struck under this 24
Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 25
31, United States Code. 26
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(b) NUMISMATICITEMS.—For purposes of sections 1
5134 and 5136 of title 31, United States Code, all medals 2
struck under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic 3
items. 4
SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF 5
SALE. 6
(a) A
UTHORITYTOUSEFUNDAMOUNTS.—There is 7
authorized to be charged against the United States Mint 8
Public Enterprise Fund such amounts as may be nec-9
essary to pay for the costs of the medals struck under 10
this Act. 11
(b) P
ROCEEDS OFSALE.—Amounts received from the 12
sale of duplicate bronze medals authorized under section 13
4 shall be deposited into the United States Mint Public 14
Enterprise Fund. 15
Æ
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