Congress honors overlooked African-American D-Day heroes with gold medal
H.R. 4621 — 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion Gold Medal Act · Filed by Marc Veasey (D-TX) · 14 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 22, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill authorizes Congress to award a single gold medal to the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, an African-American Army unit that played a crucial role in the D-Day invasion by deploying barrage balloons to protect Allied forces from enemy aircraft. The medal will be designed by the Secretary of the Treasury in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, presented by the Speaker and Senate President pro tempore, and then donated to the Smithsonian Institution for display and research. The bill also permits the U.S. Mint to strike and sell bronze duplicate medals to recover costs.
Why we flagged it
This is a straightforward commemorative bill authorizing a single gold medal for a military unit. It contains no policy changes, regulatory provisions, or appropriations—only a ceremonial honor and a mechanism for cost recovery through duplicate bronze sales.
What the text implies
- The bill's focus on the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion may increase public awareness of African-American contributions to World War II, potentially influencing how this history is taught and remembered.
- Placement of the medal at the Smithsonian and other D-Day/WWII sites may drive modest educational tourism and research interest in this previously underrecognized unit.
Who it affects
This bill honors the historical contributions and sacrifices of African-American soldiers whose role in World War II has been underrecognized. It serves a legitimate public purpose—national commemoration and historical education—with no direct cost to taxpayers beyond the minimal cost of striking a single gold medal, which is offset by bronze duplicate sales.
Named in the bill
320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, U.S. Mint, Smithsonian Institution, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Defense, Speaker of the House, President pro tempore of the Senate, U.S. Army, D-Day invasion, Normandy, Corporal Waverly B. Woodson Jr.
Where it stands
14 cosponsors: 9 Democrats, 5 Republicans.
- Jul 22, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 22, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on House Administration and House Committee on Financial Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on House Administration…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $540,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 4 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Marc Veasey, the sponsor, reported $524,800 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Aecom — $540,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jun 8, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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