if the gentleman will yield further , let me just make a point . 
i appreciate what the gentleman from delaware has said . 
the reality is , though , a country of 300 million people , only 20 medals have been awarded in the past decade . 
that is not an awful lot of medals . 
the point that the gentleman is making is that it has been extraordinary when we have actually issued this medal to groups . 
why are we now limiting ourselves ; when it is extraordinary , recognized as extraordinary , why are we now officially and legally limiting the ability of congress to issue this medal to groups ? 
i do not understand that . 
we understand the process is hard . 
the gentleman has just said himself to get two-thirds of the members of this house truly requires bipartisanship to get this done . 
this is not done , as i mentioned before , in a willy-nilly manner . 
there is great effort involved . 
i understand it . 
i remember when my friend from new york ( mr. fossella ) xz4001390 was doing this for john cardinal o'connor and the effort that it took to get both sides to get enough members to sign onto that . 
i do understand the difficulties in that , but i hope the gentleman understands the appreciation that has been set forth by my testimony here today as well as my good friend from texas ( ms. jackson-lee ) xz4001990 that sometimes , not ofttimes , it is not just individuals , but it is groups who are responsible for incredible , incredible events in this country and i believe are deserving of the congressional gold medal . 
i hope that the gentleman would agree with that and we will have a motion to recommit that will , if passed , put this back to committee and will strike that language limiting it only to individuals . 
