Sponsors (239)
Congress awards a Congressional Gold Medal to North Platte Canteen volunteers, directs the Mint to strike the medal, places it in the Lincoln County Historical Museum, and allows sale of bronze duplicates to cover costs.
Official title: To award a Congressional Gold Medal, collectively, to the individuals and communities who volunteered or donated items to the North Platte Canteen in North Platte, Nebraska, during World War II from December 25, 1941, to April 1, 1946.
Introduced February 21, 2025 by Adrian Smith · Last progress February 21, 2025
The bill honors and preserves the North Platte Canteen’s WWII legacy and lets the public buy cost‑recovering duplicates, but it shifts costs and authority into the Mint’s fund and federal processes—trading modest fiscal and oversight implications for symbolic and educational recognition.
Citizens can buy affordable bronze duplicate medals and those sales are structured to cover production costs with proceeds returned to the Mint’s fund, so taxpayers are not subsidizing duplicates and Congress is less likely to need new appropriations.
The legislation permanently honors North Platte Canteen volunteers by placing the congressional gold medal on public display at the Lincoln County Historical Museum, preserving the community’s WWII-era legacy and providing research/educational access.
Medals are officially classified as national/numismatic items, clarifying their legal status and enabling their handling, sale, and disposition under existing Treasury/Mint numismatic authorities.
Shifting production and sales into the Mint’s Public Enterprise Fund reduces that fund’s balance available for other Mint activities and relies on agency-held revenue instead of direct appropriations, which reduces congressional budgetary oversight.
Taxpayers will incur a small upfront cost to mint the congressional gold medal for a largely symbolic recognition that provides no direct material benefit to most Americans.
If medals are marketed as numismatic items, buyers (collectors, museums, institutions) may face premiums that raise acquisition costs.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes Congress to present a Congressional Gold Medal to the volunteers and donors of the North Platte Canteen (North Platte, Nebraska) in recognition of their World War II service, directs the Treasury to strike an appropriately designed gold medal for that purpose, and requires the medal be given to the Lincoln County Historical Museum for display and research. The bill also allows the Treasury (United States Mint) to strike and sell bronze duplicates to cover production costs, treats the medals as national numismatic items, and directs proceeds from duplicate sales to the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.