President George Bush signed the Abraham Lincoln bicentennial commemorative dollar coin legislation into law Sept. 27 for a 2009 striking.
Senate action came first when it passed S. 811, authorizing the striking of up to 500,000 silver dollars commemorating the bicentennial of Lincoln?s birth on Feb. 12, 1809.
The House took no action on the Senate measure, preferring to utilize H.R. 2808 taken up by the House on Sept. 6 of this year. The measure passed by unanimous consent.
Literally, the only difference between the two measures was the bill number: House Resolution 2808 or Senate Bill 811. The rest of the verbiage is the same. But no bill can pass unless one house of Congress accepts the bill number of the other.
The House view was that since it was a revenue measure ? a $10 surcharge that could yield up to $5 million for the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Com-mission ? it should be the House bill.
On Sept. 8, the Senate passed the House version by unanimous consent. By law, the bill must be signed or vetoed within 10 days, not including Sundays or holidays, by the President
Design on the coin is to represent the ?life and legacy? of Abraham Lincoln. It will join four 2009-dated circulating cent designs honoring Lincoln in his life phases: birth (Kentucky), youth (Indiana), lawyer (Illinois) and presidency (Washington, D.C.).
