Sponsors (289)
The bill publicly honors and preserves the history of the 761st Tank Battalion and enables cost‑recovered commemorative sales, but it only provides symbolic recognition (no direct benefits to veterans) while creating modest fiscal, pricing, and administrative effects for the Mint and taxpayers.
Veterans of the 761st Tank Battalion (and their families) and the broader Black military community receive formal national recognition, which raises public awareness of the battalion's service and the racial discrimination and delayed recognition they faced.
The medal will be placed in the National Museum of African American History and Culture and may be loaned to locations tied to the 761st, giving the public, researchers, schools, and battalion-associated communities meaningful access to the artifact and its history.
Members of the public (collectors, supporters, middle-class families) can buy bronze replicas, and the Mint is authorized to sell/manage numismatic products so sales can recover production costs and returns go to the Mint's Public Enterprise Fund to support future operations.
Surviving veterans and their families are affected only by symbolic recognition—the bill provides no programmatic benefits, services, or direct financial support to address veterans' material needs.
Taxpayers and federal staff face modest fiscal and administrative costs: minting the gold medal, producing replicas, and added responsibilities for the Secretary, Mint, and Treasury create small but real expenditures and staff workload.
Classifying medals as numismatic items and including full overhead in replica prices may lead to premium pricing, making replicas more expensive and potentially limiting access for average purchasers.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Awards a Congressional Gold Medal to the 761st Tank Battalion, directs minting and donation to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and permits sale of bronze duplicates to cover costs.
Official title: To award a Congressional Gold Medal to the 761st Tank Battalion, collectively, in recognition of their crucial role in the success of Allied forces in Europe and for the example they set as the first Black soldiers to go to war as part of an American armored unit.
Introduced February 26, 2025 by Gary James Palmer · Last progress February 26, 2025
Authorizes the Congress to present a Congressional Gold Medal to the 761st Tank Battalion (the “Black Panthers”) in recognition of their World War II service and historic status as the first predominantly Black American armored battalion in the European Theater. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to have the United States Mint strike the gold medal, gives the medal to the National Museum of African American History and Culture for display and research, and permits sale of bronze duplicates to cover costs. Requires that medals struck under the Act be treated as national medals and numismatic items under federal law, allows the Mint to charge its Public Enterprise Fund for production costs, and specifies that proceeds from duplicate sales be deposited into that Fund.