Sponsors (29)
Official title: Award a Congressional Gold Medal, collectively, to the brave women who served in World War II as members of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps and U.S. Navy Nurse Corps.
Introduced June 26, 2025 by Tammy Baldwin · Last progress June 26, 2025
The bill ceremonially honors World War II Army and Navy nurses and expands public access to a commemorative medal while largely offsetting costs via sales, at the trade-off of modest taxpayer or Mint fund impacts and limited substantive policy change.
World War II Army and Navy Nurse Corps members (veterans, many of them women) are formally honored with congressional findings and a Congressional Gold Medal, giving official recognition of their service and sacrifices.
The bill explicitly acknowledges past racial discrimination against Black nurses, which may prompt greater attention to historical injustices and related corrective measures for affected veterans.
The Congressional Gold Medal will be preserved for public display at the Smithsonian (and encouraged to be exhibited at multiple sites), improving public access, research opportunities, and educational awareness of nurses' wartime role.
Taxpayers may incur modest administrative and ceremonial costs (Treasury, Congress, Smithsonian) related to producing, transferring, and displaying the medal.
The bill's formal findings could increase pressure for future legislative expansions of veterans' benefits, which—if enacted—would raise federal spending and affect taxpayers.
Charging medal production costs to the Mint's Public Enterprise Fund could divert resources from other Mint coinage programs or operations, indirectly affecting Mint activities and related public revenue uses.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Awards a Congressional Gold Medal to World War II Army and Navy nurses, directs the Mint to strike the medal and give it to the Smithsonian, and permits sale of bronze duplicates to cover costs.
Authorizes Congress to award a Congressional Gold Medal honoring members of the World War II Army and Navy Nurse Corps and related nursing services, directs the Secretary of the Treasury to have the United States Mint strike the medal, and requires the gold medal to be given to the Smithsonian for display and research. It also allows the Mint to strike and sell bronze duplicate medals to cover production costs and treats medals under the Act as numismatic "national medals," with proceeds deposited into the Mint Public Enterprise Fund. The law includes findings recognizing the service, sacrifices, and historical experiences of Army and Navy nurses in World War II (including prisoners of war, combat hospital staff, and nurses from Chinese/Chinese‑American and Japanese‑American communities), and expresses congressional gratitude while suggesting Smithsonian display locations.