Congress honors WWII hero who saved Jewish soldiers from Nazi genocide
S. 262 — Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds Congressional Gold Medal Act · Filed by Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) · 7 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 27, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill authorizes Congress to award a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal to Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, a World War II hero who risked his life to protect approximately 200 Jewish-American soldiers from Nazi persecution in a German POW camp. The bill also permits the U.S. Mint to strike and sell bronze duplicate medals to cover costs, with proceeds returned to the Mint's fund.
Why we flagged it
This is a straightforward Congressional Gold Medal bill honoring a deceased World War II serviceman for heroic actions protecting fellow soldiers. It contains no policy changes, regulatory provisions, or appropriations — only authorization for a commemorative medal and cost-recovery bronze duplicates.
Who it affects
This is a commemorative honor for a deceased veteran whose actions exemplify moral courage and protection of vulnerable soldiers. The bill carries no direct cost to taxpayers (duplicate medal sales offset production costs) and serves a legitimate public purpose: honoring sacrifice and reinforcing democratic values around human dignity and resistance to tyranny.
Named in the bill
Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds, U.S. Mint, 422nd Infantry Regiment, Stalag IX-A, Yad Vashem, U.S. Army, Congress
Where it stands
7 cosponsors: 5 Democrats, 2 Republicans.
- Jan 27, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jan 27, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs”
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 $760,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 103 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.
Marsha Blackburn, the sponsor, reported $133,620 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- AFL-CIO — $760,000 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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