Dr. Li Wenliang Congressional Gold Medal Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 6471 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 APRIL 7, 2020 Mr. ROY (for himself 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 provi- sions as fall within 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 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 The Congress finds the following: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Apr 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6471.IH H6471 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 6471 IH (1) Dr. Li Wenliang was a 34-year-old ophthal- 1 mologist in Wuhan, China, who died from the 2019 2 novel coronavirus (COVID–19) after he sought to 3 draw attention to the spread of the virus despite the 4 Chinese government’s effort to suppress him. 5 (2) Research indicates that the first patient in- 6 fected with COVID–19 exhibited symptoms in early 7 December 2019, if not earlier. 8 (3) In December 2019, Dr. Li Wenliang noti- 9 fied his colleagues in the medical community in 10 China about the outbreak of COVID–19. 11 (4) On January 3, 2020, after raising concerns 12 about the spread of COVID–19, Dr. Li Wenliang 13 and seven other doctors were detained and ques- 14 tioned by Chinese officials. Dr. Li Wenliang was 15 forced to sign a statement retracting his warnings 16 about the virus and confessing that he had spread 17 illegal rumors. 18 (5) Chinese government authorities played down 19 dangers to the public for weeks as COVID–19 con- 20 tinued to spread, with more than 42,000 confirmed 21 cases in China alone and at least 1,000 deaths re- 22 ported as of February 11, 2020. 23 (6) Dr. Li Wenliang continued to work at 24 Wuhan Central Hospital despite his knowledge of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Apr 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6471.IH H6471 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 6471 IH the outbreak, and appears to have been infected 1 himself with COVID–19 after coming in contact 2 with a patient he was treating. 3 (7) In February 2020, in the hospital where he 4 worked, Dr. Li Wenliang died after contracting 5 COVID–19. 6 (8) Before his death, Dr. Li Wenliang stated, 7 ‘‘If the officials had disclosed information about the 8 epidemic earlier, I think it would have been a lot 9 better. There should be more openness and trans- 10 parency.’’. 11 (9) The people of China expressed their grief 12 and anger on social media after the death of Dr. Li 13 Wenliang with the phrase ‘‘I want freedom of 14 speech’’, which was quickly censored by the Govern- 15 ment of the People’s Republic of China. 16 (10) The Chinese government inflicted incalcu- 17 lable damage on their own people and the rest of the 18 world by trying to extinguish the news of the 19 COVID–19 rather than mobilize global efforts to 20 battle it. 21 (11) Awarding Dr. Li Wenliang the Congres- 22 sional Gold Medal, would not only recognize his bold 23 actions to draw attention to the spread of COVID– 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Apr 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6471.IH H6471 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 6471 IH 19, but call global attention to China’s lack of trans- 1 parency and censorship of speech. 2 SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 3 (a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of 4 the House of Representatives and the President pro tem- 5 pore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements 6 for the posthumous presentation, on behalf of the Con- 7 gress, of a gold medal of appropriate design in commemo- 8 ration of Dr. Li Wenliang’s efforts to save lives by drawing 9 awareness to COVID–19 and his call for transparency in 10 China. 11 (b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For purposes of the 12 presentation referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary 13 of the Treasury (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Sec- 14 retary’’) shall strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, 15 devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Sec- 16 retary. 17 (c) SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.— 18 (1) IN GENERAL.—Following the award of the 19 gold medal under subsection (a), the gold medal 20 shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where 21 it shall be available for display as appropriate and 22 made available for research. 23 (2) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of 24 Congress that the Smithsonian Institution shall 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Apr 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6471.IH H6471 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 6471 IH make the gold medal received under paragraph (1) 1 available for display elsewhere, particularly at appro- 2 priate locations dedicated to preserving the history 3 of the Chinese pro-democracy movement. 4 SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 5 The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 6 bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 3 7 under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, at 8 a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, 9 materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, 10 and the cost of the gold medal. 11 SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 12 (a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—The medals struck pursu- 13 ant to this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 14 51 of title 31, United States Code. 15 (b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of section 16 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck 17 under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items. 18 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Apr 18, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H6471.IH H6471 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS