II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 366
To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Muhammad Ali,
in recognition of his contributions to the United States.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY3, 2025
Mr. P
ADILLAintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
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
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Muhammad Ali Con-4
gressional Gold Medal Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
(1) Born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., on Janu-8
ary 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky, Muhammad 9
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Ali was the first child of Cassius, Sr., and Odessa 1
Clay. 2
(2) Muhammad Ali was one of the most cele-3
brated athletes of the 20th century. He produced 4
some of the greatest sports memories in the United 5
States, from winning a gold medal at the 1960 Sum-6
mer Olympics to lighting the Olympic torch at the 7
1996 Summer Olympics. 8
(3) After an impressive amateur career, during 9
which he won 2 National AAU light heavyweight ti-10
tles, Muhammad Ali became the first professional 11
boxer in history to capture the heavyweight title 3 12
separate times. 13
(4) On April 28, 1967, he was stripped of his 14
boxing title and barred from competing for being a 15
conscientious objector to the war in Vietnam on reli-16
gious and moral grounds. However, following a 17
unanimous decision by the Supreme Court of the 18
United States in 1971, Muhammad Ali’s conscien-19
tious objector status was confirmed, his boxing li-20
cense was reinstated, and he was cleared of any 21
wrongdoing. 22
(5) As an African American and a Muslim who 23
lived in an era that continued to question his civil 24
rights, Muhammad Ali battled issues of race and re-25
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ligion, and received recognition as one of the cham-1
pions of the Civil Rights Movement in the United 2
States. 3
(6) Muhammad Ali was the recipient of many 4
awards for his sporting prowess and his support of 5
racial harmony, including the Dr. Martin Luther 6
King Memorial Award, the Spirit of America Award, 7
the Amnesty International Lifetime Achievement 8
Award, the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, the Es-9
sence Living Legend Award, the Rainbow Coalition 10
Lifetime Achievement Award, the XNBA Human 11
Spirit Award, the Presidential Citizens Medal, and 12
the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 13
(7) Muhammad Ali was acknowledged by many 14
organizations for his achievements both inside and 15
outside the boxing ring, including being crowned 16
‘‘Sportsman of the Century’’ by Sports Illustrated, 17
being named ‘‘Athlete of the Century’’ by GQ maga-18
zine, being named ‘‘Sports Personality of the Cen-19
tury’’ by the British Broadcasting Corporation, 20
being named ‘‘Kentucky Athlete of the Century’’ by 21
the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, being named 22
‘‘Kentuckian of the Century’’ by the State of Ken-23
tucky, being named ‘‘Louisvillian of the Century’’ by 24
the Advertising Club of Louisville, being named 25
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‘‘Boxer of the Century’’ by the World Sports Awards 1
of the Century, being recognized by the Inter-2
national Boxing Hall of Fame, and receiving hon-3
orary doctorate degrees from Muhlenberg College 4
and Princeton University. 5
(8) Muhammad Ali received the prestigious 6
Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold from the United 7
Nations Association of Germany for his work with 8
the United Nations and the Civil Rights Movement 9
in the United States. 10
(9) Muhammad Ali was selected by the Cali-11
fornia Bicentennial Foundation for the U.S. Con-12
stitution for personifying the vitality of the Bill of 13
Rights in various high-profile activities. 14
(10) Despite having been diagnosed with Par-15
kinson’s disease in the early 1980s, Muhammad Ali 16
dedicated his life to the cause of universal human 17
rights and freedom. His commitment to equal justice 18
and peace touched the lives of hundreds of thou-19
sands of people worldwide. 20
(11) President Jimmy Carter asked Muhammad 21
Ali to meet with African leaders in Tanzania, Kenya, 22
Nigeria, Liberia, and Senegal as part of the diplo-23
matic efforts of President Carter to promote human 24
rights in the 1980s. 25
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(12) In 1990, Muhammad Ali traveled to the 1
Middle East to seek the release of United States and 2
British hostages that were being held as human 3
shields in the first Gulf War. As a result of his 4
intervention, 15 United States hostages were freed 5
on December 2nd of that year. 6
(13) In 1998, Muhammad Ali was chosen as 7
the ‘‘U.N. Messenger of Peace’’. 8
(14) Several Presidents of the United States 9
recognized Muhammad Ali, including President 10
George W. Bush who, on November 17, 2002, called 11
him ‘‘a man of peace’’ and stated that ‘‘across the 12
world, billions of people know Muhammad Ali as a 13
brave, compassionate, and charming man, and the 14
American people are proud to call Muhammad Ali 15
one of our own’’, President Bill Clinton who stated 16
that Muhammad Ali ‘‘captured the world’s imagina-17
tion and its heart. Outside the ring, Muhammad Ali 18
has dedicated his life to working for children, feed-19
ing the hungry, supporting his faith, and standing 20
up for racial equality. He always fought for a just 21
and more humane world, breaking down barriers 22
here in America and around the world. There is no 23
telling how many tens of millions of people had their 24
hearts swell with pride and their eyes swell with 25
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tears in 1996 when Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic 1
torch, because we know, now and forever, he is the 2
greatest’’, President Jimmy Carter who cited Mu-3
hammad Ali as ‘‘Mr. International Friendship’’, and 4
President Barack Obama who, as a Senator, had a 5
framed picture of Muhammad Ali hanging in his of-6
fice, and before announcing his intentions to run for 7
President, Obama visited with Muhammad Ali at the 8
Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky. 9
(15) Muhammad Ali encouraged humanity 10
through his perseverance and the support of thou-11
sands of people. He helped such organizations as the 12
Chicago-based adoption agency, The Cradle, the 13
Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Special Olympics’ or-14
ganization, Best Buddies; and Herbert E. Birch 15
Services, an organization that runs a school for 16
handicapped children and young adults, in addition 17
to a summer camp for children with AIDS. 18
(16) Muhammad Ali and his wife Lonnie were 19
the founding directors of the Muhammad Ali Par-20
kinson Center in Phoenix, Arizona, and helped raise 21
over $50,000,000 for Parkinson’s research. The 22
Center’s mission is to provide excellence in treat-23
ment, research, and education for patients and fami-24
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lies affected by Parkinson’s disease and other move-1
ment disorders, regardless of their ability to pay. 2
(17) Muhammad Ali was an inspiration to 3
countless individuals with Parkinson’s disease, in-4
cluding members of the Rock Steady Boxing Foun-5
dation in Indianapolis, Indiana, which was founded 6
to give people with Parkinson’s disease hope by im-7
proving their quality of life using boxing for fitness. 8
(18) Muhammad Ali was one of the founding 9
members of Athletes for Hope, an organization cre-10
ated by a few very successful athletes of exemplary 11
character who have a deep commitment to charitable 12
and community causes. 13
(19) Muhammad Ali also established the Mu-14
hammad Ali Center in his hometown of Louisville, 15
Kentucky, which promotes respect, hope, and under-16
standing, and inspires people everywhere to be as 17
great as they can be. A visitor of the Muhammad Ali 18
Center experiences the ‘‘hows’’ of Ali’s life: How he 19
found the courage, the dedication, and the discipline 20
to become a world champion, how he found the con-21
viction to stand up for what he believed, and how he 22
turned his passion for excellence in the ring to a 23
passion for peace on the world stage. 24
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(20) Like Muhammad Ali himself, the Muham-1
mad Ali Center focuses on what brings individuals 2
together, not what sets them apart, and is a ‘‘global 3
gathering place’’ to which people can come, both on-4
line and in person, to learn, share, and celebrate our 5
commonalities as human beings and to formulate 6
ways of advancing humanity. 7
(21) Muhammad Ali helped to provide more 8
than 22,000,000 aid packets to assist people in 9
need, and until the last years of his life, he traveled, 10
on average, more than 200 days per year for human-11
itarian causes. 12
(22) Muhammad Ali, known simply as ‘‘the 13
greatest’’, transcended the glamour and glory of 14
being a sports champion to become not only one of 15
the greatest sports figures, but one of the greatest 16
role models of our time. 17
(23) On June 3, 2016, Muhammad Ali died at 18
the age of 74. 19
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 20
(a) P
RESENTATIONAUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of 21
the House of Representatives and the President pro tem-22
pore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements 23
for the presentation, on behalf of Congress, of a gold 24
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medal of appropriate design to Muhammad Ali, in recogni-1
tion of his contributions to the United States. 2
(b) D
ESIGN ANDSTRIKING.—For the purpose of the 3
presentation described in subsection (a), the Secretary of 4
the Treasury (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’) 5
shall strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, 6
and inscriptions to be determined by the Secretary. The 7
design shall bear an image of, and inscriptions of the name 8
of, ‘‘Muhammad Ali’’. 9
(c) T
RANSFER OFMEDALAFTERPRESENTATION.— 10
Following the presentation of the gold medal in honor of 11
Muhammad Ali under subsection (a), the gold medal shall 12
be given to his wife, Lonnie Ali. 13
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 14
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 15
bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 3 at 16
a price sufficient to cover the costs thereof, including 17
labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead ex-18
penses. 19
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 20
(a) N
ATIONALMEDALS.—Medals struck under this 21
Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 22
31, United States Code. 23
(b) N
UMISMATICITEMS.—For purposes of sections 24
5134 and 5136 of title 31, United States Code, all medals 25
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struck under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic 1
items. 2
SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF 3
SALE. 4
(a) A
UTHORITYTOUSEFUNDAMOUNTS.—There is 5
authorized to be charged against the United States Mint 6
Public Enterprise Fund such amounts as may be nec-7
essary to pay for the costs of the medals struck under 8
this Act. 9
(b) P
ROCEEDS OFSALE.—Amounts received from the 10
sale of duplicate bronze medals authorized under section 11
4 shall be deposited into the United States Mint Public 12
Enterprise Fund. 13
Æ
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