This bill authorizes Congress to award, on its behalf, a single Congressional Gold Medal posthumously to former President Jimmy Carter in recognition of his public service. It includes a formal set of findings summarizing his public life and accomplishments.
Beyond the honorific, the statute directs the Treasury to design and strike the medal, gives the finished gold medal to the Carter Center, permits the Mint to strike and sell bronze duplicates, and authorizes the Mint to use its Public Enterprise Fund to pay the costs of manufacture. Those operational instructions convert a symbolic award into a set of procedural actions for the U.S. Mint and congressional leadership to execute.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill directs the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate to arrange a posthumous presentation of a Congressional Gold Medal to Jimmy Carter, tasks the Secretary of the Treasury with the medal’s design and striking, and assigns custody of the gold medal to the Carter Center. It also allows the Mint to strike and sell bronze duplicates and to cover costs from the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
Who It Affects
Primary operational impact falls on the U.S. Mint and the Department of the Treasury (design, striking, sales and accounting). Secondary effects touch the Carter Center (as recipient and custodian), collectors and numismatic markets (through duplicate sales), and congressional leadership who will arrange the presentation ceremony.
Why It Matters
This statutory authorization binds the Mint and Congress to specific steps rather than leaving the award to internal congressional practice: it sets custody, sales, and funding mechanics in law. For collectors and museums, the bill clarifies the legal status of the medals and creates an official channel for duplicate sales and cost recovery.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill is a focused, single-purpose statute that does four things: establishes findings about Jimmy Carter’s public service, authorizes the posthumous award of a Congressional Gold Medal, prescribes how the medal is made and who receives it, and sets the financial mechanics for producing and selling duplicates. The findings section catalogs Carter’s career highlights and humanitarian work; Congress uses findings to state the rationale for awarding the medal but provides no substantive legal consequences beyond recognition.
On mechanics, the bill requires congressional leadership—specifically the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate—to arrange for the presentation of a single gold medal on behalf of Congress. The Secretary of the Treasury, through the U.S. Mint, must design and strike the gold medal; the statute requires that the design include Carter’s image and name but otherwise leaves detailed artistic choices to the Secretary.After the award, the Act directs that the physical gold medal be given to the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Secretary may also produce bronze duplicate medals and sell them at prices that cover production costs (labor, materials, dies, machinery, overhead). The bill treats all medals struck under the Act as national medals and as numismatic items under the cited sections of title 31, United States Code, and authorizes the Mint to use its Public Enterprise Fund to pay costs and to deposit proceeds from duplicate sales back into that fund.Operationally, that combination of instructions creates a closed loop: statutory authorization to award; Mint responsibility for manufacturing and sale; a designated institutional custodian for the gold medal; and a specified funding and accounting pathway for expenses and revenues.
The bill gives the Secretary authority on design and pricing but leaves administrative details—timing of the presentation, production schedule, marketing of duplicates, and security and display arrangements—to executive implementation.
The Five Things You Need to Know
Section 3(a) directs the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate to make arrangements for a posthumous presentation of a single gold medal to Jimmy Carter on behalf of Congress.
Section 3(b) requires the Secretary of the Treasury to strike the gold medal and specifies that the design must bear an image of, and inscription of the name of, Jimmy Carter.
Section 3(c) mandates transfer of the awarded gold medal to the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, as the medal’s custodian.
Section 4 authorizes the Secretary to strike duplicate medals in bronze and sell them at a price sufficient to cover all production costs (labor, materials, dies, machinery, and overhead).
Section 6 authorizes charging medal production costs to the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund and requires proceeds from bronze duplicate sales to be deposited into that same fund.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Short title
Establishes the Act’s short title as the "President Jimmy Carter Congressional Gold Medal Act." This is purely formal but matters for statutory citation and how implementing guidance and agency notices will refer to the authorization.
Congressional findings summarizing Carter’s record
Lists factual findings about Jimmy Carter’s life, public offices, foreign- and domestic-policy achievements, post-presidential humanitarian work (the Carter Center and Habitat for Humanity), and the Nobel Peace Prize. These findings provide Congress’s stated rationale for the award; they do not create regulatory obligations but can guide messaging and any accompanying congressional report or ceremony text.
Presentation authorization
Directs the Speaker and the President pro tempore to ‘‘make appropriate arrangements’’ for a posthumous presentation of the medal. Practically, this creates a congressional duty to schedule and coordinate a ceremony and determines that Congress—not an executive agency—will effect the award on behalf of the nation.
Design and striking (Treasury/U.S. Mint authority)
Gives the Secretary of the Treasury responsibility to strike the gold medal and to choose emblems, devices, inscriptions, and the overall design, with the statutory requirement that the medal bear Carter’s image and name. The provision vests artistic and manufacturing discretion with the Mint, including timing, production methods, and technical specifications.
Disposition of the gold medal
Specifies that after the award the gold medal shall be given to the Carter Center in Atlanta. That direction fixes a private, non‑federal institution as the national custodian, triggering questions about public access, lending for display, and long‑term stewardship that the statute does not address.
Authority to strike and sell duplicate bronze medals
Permits the Mint to strike bronze duplicates for sale and requires pricing to cover manufacturing costs (explicitly listing labor, materials, dies, machinery, and overhead). This creates a statutory basis for a limited commercial offering tied to an official congressional award and establishes cost‑recovery as the pricing objective rather than revenue generation.
Legal status of medals
Declares medals struck under the Act to be 'national medals' under chapter 51 of title 31 and to be 'numismatic items' for purposes of 31 U.S.C. §§ 5134 and 5136. Those labels affect how Mint accounting, sales authority, and legal restrictions applicable to numismatic items and national medals apply to these pieces.
Funding and handling of proceeds
Authorizes charging production costs to the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund and specifies that proceeds from bronze duplicate sales be deposited into that fund. This statute avoids a direct Congressional appropriation and instead relies on the Mint’s revolving/public enterprise account to front costs and recover them through sales.
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Explore Government in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Carter Center — Receives the official gold medal as custodian, which enhances institutional prestige and creates a focal object for displays and fundraising tied to Jimmy Carter’s legacy.
- Historians, museums, and educators — Gain access to an officially sanctioned artifact and the bill’s findings, which supply a concise congressional statement of Carter’s contributions useful for exhibits and curricula.
- Collectors and numismatic purchasers — Can buy government‑authorized bronze duplicates, which usually carry higher collectability and provenance than unofficial replicas.
- U.S. Mint operations — Gains a legislated sales opportunity and explicit authority to recover costs through sales and fund accounting, providing operational clarity for this specific medal program.
Who Bears the Cost
- United States Mint/Public Enterprise Fund — Must front production costs and manage sales and accounting; the Act directs use of the Mint’s fund rather than a direct appropriation, exposing the fund to production and marketing risk if sales underperform.
- The Carter Center — While it receives the gold medal, the Center will likely bear costs for security, insurance, curation, and display that the statute does not fund.
- House and Senate leadership offices — Responsible for arranging the presentation ceremony, adding logistical, scheduling, and potential event costs to congressional staff workloads and budgets.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central tension is between honoring a national figure through an official congressional award and the privatized, commercial mechanics the statute authorizes: Congress confers a national honor and then directs that the physical gold medal go to a private nonprofit and that bronze replicas be sold to recover costs—forcing a trade‑off between preserving a public symbol and treating the medal program as a Mint‑run numismatic enterprise with commercial and custodial consequences.
The bill resolves the award question but leaves many implementation details to executive practice. It vests significant discretion in the Secretary of the Treasury over design, production schedule, and the scope of bronze duplicates.
That discretion simplifies statutory drafting but creates potential for disagreement over artistic choices, edition size, pricing strategy, and marketing approaches that the statute does not constrain.
Designating the Carter Center as the recipient creates a private custodian for a national medal; the statute is silent about public access, loan policies, or whether the medal should rotate through federal repositories or state institutions. The sale of bronze duplicates at cost also raises administrative questions: what counts as overhead, how the Mint will verify cost coverage, and how unsold inventory or production shortfalls will affect the Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
Finally, the reliance on the Mint’s Public Enterprise Fund avoids a direct appropriation but shifts financial risk to the Mint. If sales do not cover upfront expenses, the fund absorbs shortfalls; if sales exceed costs, proceeds return to the fund rather than to a Congressional-designated beneficiary, which is consistent with current numismatic practice but may prompt questions about transparency and oversight of revenues tied to commemorative programs.
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