There’s currently no medal awarded to federal employees who aren’t in law enforcement or the military who are wounded or killed in the line of duty. Creating an Abraham Lincoln Medal for Public Service is a thoughtful way of changing that and honoring their sacrifice.
There shouldn’t be an equivalent to the Purple Heart that’s available to federal employees killed or wounded in the line of duty who don’t work in law enforcement or the military. Creating a medal to honor their sacrifice would be a waste of time and resources.
This bill — the Abraham Lincoln Medal for Public Sacrifice Act — would establish a medal awarded by the president to individuals who are wounded or killed in an attack in which they were targeted because of their status as a federal employee and were acting in their official capacity at the time. The medal could be awarded retroactively to qualified individuals.
An individual could not receive the award if their wounds or death are the result of their willful misconduct or negligence.
In-Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Paul Cook (R-CA) and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) introduced this bill to create the Abraham Lincoln Medal for Public Service to recognize the sacrifice of individual federal employees who are injured or killed in the line of duty, as no such award exists for employees outside of the military and law enforcement:
“Members of the military, Department of Defense, and federal law enforcement have specific awards to recognize injuries sustained in the line of duty, but other government employees do not have a singular award to recognize their sacrifice in service to our nation. For this reason as co-chairs of the Congressional Purple Heart Caucus, Rep. Paul Cook and Rep. Mike Thompson are proposing the creation of the Abraham Lincoln Medal for Public Sacrifice.
As the first President assassinated, Abraham Lincoln’s attacker targeted him for his lead role in maintaining the unity of our country. Lincoln’s devotion to our nation cost him his life, but we believe this is a risk he accepted as a devoted servant to the United States. In the spirit of his lifetime of service, we intend to create the Lincoln Medal to recognize federal employees and elected officials from the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches who are injured in attacks at home and abroad based on the position they hold in our government. Current language in the bill allows for retroactive awarding of the medal. We believe the Lincoln Medal will help show our nation that service and sacrifice supersede any ideological or partisan divide.”
This legislation has the support of three bipartisan cosponsors in the House, including two Democrats and one Republican.
Media:
Summary by Eric Revell
(Photo Credit: diane39 / iStock)
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