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Executive Order 13306: Establishing the Bob Hope American Patriot Award

President: George W. Bush

Established a presidential award in Bob Hope's name for civilians or organizations devoted to U.S. armed forces personnel; an award is discretionary, not annual or automatic.

Status: In effect. Sources: EO 13306 · Signed EO 13306 Federal Register text.

Is Executive Order 13306 still in effect? Yes. The May 28, 2003 order establishes continuing award authority without an expiration date, and the Federal Register disposition record lists no revocation. Current position: award established; no later grant verified in the official records checked.

What does Executive Order 13306 do?

Executive Order 13306 created the Bob Hope American Patriot Award on May 28, 2003. The President may grant it to an eligible civilian or organization, ordinarily no more than once per year. The 2024 U.S. Code still reproduces the order, but the official records checked for this review do not verify a named recipient or a later presentation.

Checked the Bob Hope American Patriot Award against the signed order. It authorizes a discretionary recognition; it does not create an entitlement or establish that a recipient was selected.

Administration position: The order describes Bob Hope's service and a patriotic purpose in the President's own terms. Those statements explain the administration's reason for creating the award; they do not document a later award presentation.
SignedMay 28, 2003
IssuerPresident George W. Bush
Decision makerPresident; award made solely at presidential discretion
RecipientsCivilian individuals or organizations meeting the order's criteria
FrequencyOrdinarily no more than one in a year; no annual award required

Before and after

Before the order

Before EO 13306 there was no Bob Hope American Patriot Award created by that order. House and Senate bills to establish an award were introduced in May 2003; an introduced bill is not an enacted statute.

Other awards called American Patriot Award existed separately and should not be treated as grants under this executive order.

After the order

The award was established by the signed order, and only the President was given discretion to grant it. The order names no first recipient and imposes no deadline to make an award.

The Office of the Federal Register's disposition entry lists no amendment or revocation for EO 13306, and the 2024 U.S. Code reproduces the order as an executive-order note. These records do not establish that a person or organization actually received the award.

What did EO 13306 establish?

Executive Order 13306 created the Bob Hope American Patriot Award on May 28, 2003, in recognition of the entertainer's decades of support for U.S. troops. It authorized the President, in sole discretion, to grant the award to a civilian individual or an organization that demonstrated extraordinary love of country and devotion to armed forces personnel. The order does not itself identify a winner. It permits a posthumous award and a presentation at any time during a year. Except in exceptional circumstances, it allows no more than one award in a given year. “May” matters: there is no command to select a recipient every year.

How does a grant differ from establishing an award?

Creation of a named presidential award is one action; deciding to confer it on a named person or organization is a second. The 2003 signed text proves the first. A dated presidential announcement, presentation record or comparable official evidence would establish the second. The White House released the order on May 29, and the Federal Register published it on June 3. Neither publication names a recipient. The order creates no application route, grant entitlement, cash payment, agency implementation deadline or mandatory annual ceremony.

The office responsible for a grant is the President, not a Department of Defense awards board. The order's reference to armed forces personnel defines the service it aims to honor; it does not convert the award into a military decoration for service members. Organizations are eligible alongside civilian individuals. Its one-award-per-year ceiling has an express exception, but the text provides no formula for deciding when an exceptional case exists.

What happened in Congress?

The GPO record for H.R. 2087 documents a House proposal introduced on May 14, 2003, before Bush signed the order. The Senate calendar records S. 1150, introduced May 23, as a proposal to establish the same named award. These are legislative proposals, not the legal instrument by which the President created the award on May 28. This guide does not treat their introduction, committee consideration or a cost estimate as proof of a law. The signed executive order is the authority for the presidential award described here.

What do later records establish?

The Office of the Federal Register's 2003 disposition entry for EO 13306 lists its signing and publication without an amendment or revocation entry, unlike several neighboring orders for which later changes are expressly listed. The official 2024 U.S. Code reproduces EO 13306 as an executive-order note in Title 10's awards material. Those later official records support a narrow status statement: this review found no recorded later disposition ending the award's authorization. They do not prove the President ever granted the award, nor are they a complete census of every White House event.

We reviewed the signed White House release, Federal Register text and disposition, Senate calendar, GPO bill and U.S. Code note. We did not identify a primary announcement naming a recipient under this specific executive order. That is a limit on what the reviewed sources establish, not an assertion that no award was ever made. A future discovery of a documented presentation would warrant a new dated revision and a linked source.

Do other “American Patriot Awards” count?

No automatic connection can be drawn from a similar name. A December 2002 White House account describes the National Defense University Foundation's American Patriot Award. It predates EO 13306 and has a different awarding body. A later reference to somebody receiving an “American Patriot Award” does not establish a grant under the Bob Hope presidential order without an explicit link to that award. This distinction prevents an apparent recipient from being attributed to the wrong program.

Who had to do what

Agency / officeActionTiming / position
PresidentMay grant the award to a qualifying civilian individual or organization in sole discretionOptional; ordinarily at most once in a year
PresidentMay present it at any time and may grant it posthumouslyNo required deadline or annual ceremony

What happened next

H.R. 2087 was introduced to establish a similarly named award; introduction did not enact it.

S. 1150 was introduced to establish the award; the Senate calendar records the proposal.

President Bush signed EO 13306, establishing the award by executive order.

The order appeared at 68 FR 33337 in the Federal Register.

Disposition, U.S. Code and White House materials rechecked; no recipient or presentation verified in the sources reviewed.

Common questions

Was the Bob Hope American Patriot Award actually created?

Yes. EO 13306 established it on May 28, 2003; the White House released the text the next day and the Federal Register published it on June 3. The later U.S. Code reproduces the order.

Who can receive it?

Under the signed order, a civilian individual or an organization devoted to armed forces personnel may be selected by the President. The order allows a posthumous award and ordinarily permits no more than one in a year.

Who has received this award?

The official records checked for this review do not name a recipient under EO 13306. That does not prove no grant occurred. Similar-sounding awards from other organizations are separate.

Does the President have to present it every year?

No. The order says the President may grant it in sole discretion; it sets a normal maximum of one per year, not an annual requirement.