1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Justin Smith Morrill Congressional Gold Medal Act . 2. Findings The Congress finds that: (1) Justin Smith Morrill, the son of a blacksmith and farmer, was born in Strafford, Vermont, on April 14, 1810. He prospered as a merchant and businessman in his early years and served in public office the remainder of his life. (2) Morrill, the longest serving Member of Congress in the Nineteenth Century and Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means in the United States House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance in the United States Senate, served 5 terms in the United States House of Representatives, from 1854 to 1869, and 6 terms in the United States Senate, from 1872 to 1898. (3) Morrill, inspired by his own lack of public education opportunity beyond his fifteenth birthday, proposed legislation that would set aside public lands to be sold by the states to create and fund State-run colleges. (4) Congress enacted the First Morrill Act ( 7 U.S.C. 301 et seq.) on July 2, 1862, marking the genesis of the national focus on higher education in the United States through the establishment of the land-grant institutions. (5) Congress enacted the Second Morrill Act ( 7 U.S.C. 321 et seq.) on August 30, 1890, establishing what is now a flourishing system of historically Black land-grant colleges and universities across the nation. (6) Land-grant and other public research universities today award nearly 1,000,000 degrees annually and perform more than $37,000,000,000 of research for improving the lives of Americans. (7) In 1864, Morrill introduced House Joint Resolution 66 which created the National Statuary Hall from the Old Hall of the U.S. House of Representatives and authorized the President of the United States to invite States to submit two statues of worthy citizens to be exhibited, which continues as a daily inspiration to the thousands of visitors to the United States Capitol. (8) As chairman of the Committee on Buildings and Grounds, Morrill served as principal