Dr. Li Wenliang Congressional Gold Medal Act

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 896 To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Dr. Li Wenliang, in recognition of his efforts to save lives by drawing awareness to COVID–19 and his call for transparency in China. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 5, 2021 Mr. ROY (for himself, Mr. BABIN, Mr. DAVIDSON, Mr. BUDD, Mr. WEBER of Texas, Mr. STEUBE, Mr. HICE of Georgia, Mr. PERRY, Mr. STEWART, and Mr. CRENSHAW) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on House Administration, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall with- in the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Dr. Li Wenliang, in recognition of his efforts to save lives by drawing awareness to COVID–19 and his call for transparency in China. 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 ‘‘Dr. Li Wenliang Con- 4 gressional Gold Medal Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Feb 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H896.IH H896 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 896 IH SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1 The Congress finds the following: 2 (1) Dr. Li Wenliang was a 34-year-old ophthal- 3 mologist in Wuhan, China, who died from the 2019 4 novel coronavirus (COVID–19) after he sought to 5 draw attention to the spread of the virus despite the 6 Chinese government’s effort to suppress him. 7 (2) Research indicates that the first patient in- 8 fected with COVID–19 exhibited symptoms in early 9 December 2019, if not earlier. 10 (3) In December 2019, Dr. Li Wenliang noti- 11 fied his colleagues in the medical community in 12 China about the outbreak of COVID–19. 13 (4) On January 3, 2020, after raising concerns 14 about the spread of COVID–19, Dr. Li Wenliang 15 and seven other doctors were detained and ques- 16 tioned by Chinese officials. Dr. Li Wenliang was 17 forced to sign a statement retracting his warnings 18 about the virus and confessing that he had spread 19 illegal rumors. 20 (5) Chinese government authorities played down 21 dangers to the public for weeks as COVID–19 con- 22 tinued to spread, with more than 42,000 confirmed 23 cases in China alone and at least 1,000 deaths re- 24 ported as of February 11, 2020. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Feb 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H896.IH H896 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 896 IH (6) Dr. Li Wenliang continued to work at 1 Wuhan Central Hospital despite his knowledge of 2 the outbreak, and appears to have been infected 3 himself with COVID–19 after coming in contact 4 with a patient he was treating. 5 (7) In February 2020, in the hospital where he 6 worked, Dr. Li Wenliang died after contracting 7 COVID–19. 8 (8) Before his death, Dr. Li Wenliang stated, 9 ‘‘If the officials had disclosed information about the 10 epidemic earlier, I think it would have been a lot 11 better. There should be more openness and trans- 12 parency.’’. 13 (9) The people of China expressed their grief 14 and anger on social media after the death of Dr. Li 15 Wenliang with the phrase ‘‘I want freedom of 16 speech’’, which was quickly censored by the Govern- 17 ment of the People’s Republic of China. 18 (10) The Chinese government inflicted incalcu- 19 lable damage on their own people and the rest of the 20 world by trying to extinguish the news of the 21 COVID–19 rather than mobilize global efforts to 22 battle it. 23 (11) Awarding Dr. Li Wenliang the Congres- 24 sional Gold Medal, would not only recognize his bold 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Feb 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H896.IH H896 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 896 IH actions to draw attention to the spread of COVID– 1 19, but call global attention to China’s lack of trans- 2 parency and censorship of speech. 3 SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 4 (a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of 5 the House of Representatives and the President pro tem- 6 pore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements 7 for the posthumous presentation, on behalf of the Con- 8 gress, of a gold medal of appropriate design in commemo- 9 ration of Dr. Li Wenliang’s efforts to save lives by drawing 10 awareness to COVID–19 and his call for transparency in 11 China. 12 (b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For purposes of the 13 presentation referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary 14 of the Treasury (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Sec- 15 retary’’) shall strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, 16 devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Sec- 17 retary. 18 (c) SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.— 19 (1) IN GENERAL.—Following the award of the 20 gold medal under subsection (a), the gold medal 21 shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where 22 it shall be available for display as appropriate and 23 made available for research. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Feb 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H896.IH H896 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 896 IH (2) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of 1 Congress that the Smithsonian Institution shall 2 make the gold medal received under paragraph (1) 3 available for display elsewhere, particularly at appro- 4 priate locations dedicated to preserving the history 5 of the Chinese pro-democracy movement. 6 SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 7 The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 8 bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 3 9 under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, at 10 a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, 11 materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, 12 and the cost of the gold medal. 13 SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 14 (a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—The medals struck pursu- 15 ant to this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 16 51 of title 31, United States Code. 17 (b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of section 18 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck 19 under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items. 20 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:01 Feb 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H896.IH H896 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS