Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for his support and for yielding this time.

Mr. Speaker, every year under Xi Jinping and his Chinese Communist Party, tens of thousands of young women and men, average age 28, are murdered in cold blood to steal their internal organs for profit or to be transplanted into Communist Party cadres, leaders and members alike.

These crimes against humanity are unimaginably cruel and painful. Between two and six internal organs per victim are extracted. It is murder masquerading as medicine.

Ethnic groups targeted include Uyghurs, who suffer from Xi Jinping's ongoing genocide, and the Falun Gong, whose peaceful meditation and exercise practices and exceptional good health make their organs highly desirable.

The Chinese Communist Party has declared the Falun Gong practitioners to be an evil cult fit for butchering.

Mr. Speaker, over the years I have chaired several hearings on this barbaric abuse, and 2 years ago, on March 27, the House passed my bill, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023, 413-2.

Like many other House-passed bills, however, it died in the Senate. If approved today, I respectfully appeal to the Senate to pass it this time.

Special thanks to Majority Leader Scalise, Chairman Mast, and Ranking Member Meeks for ensuring reconsideration in this new Congress, and special thanks to Bill Keating for cosponsoring.

Mr. Speaker, I have chaired several hearings over the years on forced organ harvesting beginning over one-quarter of a century ago. In June of 1998, 27 years ago, I chaired my first hearing on forced organ harvesting in China. A Chinese security officer testified that he and other security agents were executing patients with the doctors right there and the ambulances right there ready to put them in the back to take their organs after the bullets were fired.

At one hearing in September of 2015, Ethan Gutmann, a true expert and author of the book ``The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China's Secret Solution to Its Dissident Problem,'' has testified more than half a dozen times in our hearings. Mr. Gutmann has pointed out that in 1994, the first live organ harvest of death-row prisoners was performed on the execution grounds of Xinjiang in northwest China.

He points out that over the years it just kept building and growing, and then by the year 2005 the apparatus was in place in order to systematically slaughter all of these wonderful people in order to take their organs.

Ethan Gutmann today says that the prisoners' organs in Xinjiang are being harvested at a rate that translates annually, every year, into 25,000 to 50,000 victims. That is 25,000 to 50,000 Uyghurs, along with Kazakhs and other central Asians.

He also points out that if we use the lower number, we are talking about 175,000 murdered victims, all young people, for their organs in a very, very short period of time.

The Falun Dafa Information Center, which does a lot of good work for the Falun Gong, points out too that it is very hard to get precise information. It is a dictatorship and a closed society. They said the number had even jumped to 20,000 victims by 2018.

At another hearing about forced organ harvesting in China, we heard expert testimony from Sir Geoffrey Nice, who conducted the world's first global independent legal analysis of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China.

Sir Geoffrey Nice said that forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale. He said the Falun Gong and the Uyghurs in the PRC each qualify as a group for purposes of the crime of genocide.

Robert Destro, the former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, testified as well at that hearing: ``The size and scope of the organ harvesting and organ trafficking `market' is staggering.''

Mr. Speaker, we also know that there are hospitals dedicated just to dealing with and helping to assist Chinese Communist Party leaders. One of them is the Army Hospital 301 in Beijing. Where do they get these victims? From the very groups of people who they hate so much: the Uyghurs, the Falun Gong, and some others.

We have introduced again this year the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act to amend the Foreign Assistance Act to require the imposition of serious sanctions on any person the President determines funds, sponsors, or otherwise facilitates forced organ harvesting or trafficking for purposes of the removal of organs. If enacted into law, it requires very comprehensive reporting on this, which has not happened and needs to happen.

What does all this mean, really? It means civil penalties of up to $250,000 and criminal penalties, including a fine of up to $1 million and imprisonment for not more than 20 years or both.

Mr. Speaker, we are serious about sanctioning this egregious human rights abuse.

Sanctions also include blocking and prohibiting all transactions in property and interests in property and making such persons ineligible to come into this country if they are a foreigner and ineligible for a visa.

State-sponsored forced organ harvesting is big business for Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, and we will not and cannot rest until we stop it.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the organizations to my left, a group of 9 organizations--there are now 10; another has joined--that support and called for passage of this bill. These are great human rights organizations, and I include in the Record a May 4, 2025, letter from them.

May 4, 2025.

Re Vote in favor of the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of

2025.

Dear Representative: We, the undersigned organizations and

individuals, ask you to vote in favor of HR 1503, the Stop

Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025, sponsored in the House

by Rep. Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Keating (D-MA).

Forced organ harvesting and organ trafficking are

interlinked crimes where organs are taken from victims

through coercion or without informed consent and sold

illegally. This means that patients undergoing organ

transplants abroad are at-risk of receiving trafficked

organs.

In many countries, impoverished people are targeted and

coerced to sell an organ from which the traffickers make a

significant profit. The `donor' is left without medical care

and with significant health risks.

In China the situation is vastly different. For years, the

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has systematically harvested

the organs of prisoners of conscience, primarily Falun Gong

practitioners, and there is mounting evidence of Muslim

Uyghurs being targeted as well.

Since 2015, China's organ transplantation system has

claimed to only source organs from voluntary donors, but

evidence demonstrates that this data has been falsified. A

close examination shows that Chinese hospitals have performed

at least several times more transplants than even the largest

estimates of death row prisoners can account for.

In addition, China still does not abide by global standards

of transparency in regards to organ sources, donor numbers

and organ transplant operations performed, and a previous

1984 law allowing for sourcing of organs from prisoners

without their consent or consent of their families if bodies

are unclaimed, has not been repealed.

The China Tribunal, an independent, international people's

tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, lead prosecutor of

Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for

the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), has concluded ``unanimously,

and sure beyond reasonable doubt--that in China forced organ

harvesting from prisoners of conscience has been practiced

for a substantial period of time involving a very substantial

number of victims.'' The China Tribunal's judgment presents

the first-ever independent legal analysis of all available

evidence regarding forced organ harvesting from prisoners of

conscience in China.

Multiple lines of evidence reviewed by the China Tribunal

over 12 months included undercover phone calls to Chinese

surgeons and officials who admitted that Falun Gong

practitioners' organs are available on demand. Other

undercover calls atso provided evidence that former Chinese

President Jiang Zemin issued the order to harvest organs from

Falun Gong practitioners. Based on the overall collective

body of evidence reviewed, the China Tribunal concluded that

state sanctioned forced organ harvesting in China amounts to

Crimes Against Humanity.

There is also mounting evidence that the Uyghurs are now

also a target for the CCP's forced organ harvesting campaign.

For years, China has been engaged in a systematic campaign of

persecution and oppression against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz,

Hui, and other Muslim ethnic groups from the Xinjiang Uyghur

Autonomous Region. Up to 2 million of Xinjiang's Muslims are

imprisoned in ``reeducation'' camps, subjected to forced

labor, and recent reporting has shown that the Chinese

Communist Party is also subjecting them to forced

sterilization. The CCP's persecution of the Uyghurs has grown

so severe that the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has

recently announced that ``there are reasonable grounds to

believe that China is responsible for crimes against

humanity.''

According to the report: ``Organ Procurement and

Extrajudicial Execution in China: A Review of the Evidence,''

published by Matthew Robertson, China Studies Research Fellow

with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, former

Uyghur detainees ``now in exile have reported blood tests and

physical examinations consistent with those necessary to

establish organ health.'' The parallel between the forced

organ examinations on Uyghurs, and those forced on Falun Gong

practitioners, is deeply disturbing.

China has conducted a ``Physicals for All'' program in

Xinjiang. For numerous years, this program has collected DNA

samples and other data from Uyghurs, facilitating Chinese

surveillance and making it easier to identify targets for

organ harvesting in Xinjiang.

In June 2021, 12 United Nations Special Procedures mandate

holders raised the issue of forced organ harvesting with the

Chinese Government, in response to credible information that

Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and

Christians are killed for their organs in China. In the

correspondence, UN human rights experts called on China to

``promptly respond to the allegations of `organ harvesting'

and to allow independent monitoring by international human

rights mechanisms.''

To fight the global organ trafficking trade and to

specifically address the CCP's practice of forced organ

harvesting, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025

expands the U.S. government's powers to combat organ

harvesting, imposes harsher penalties for purchasing organs,

prohibits the export of organ transplant surgery devices to

entities responsible for human organ trafficking, imposes

sanctions on individuals and government officials in

countries who support human organ trafficking and forced

organ harvesting, and introduces mandatory reporting on human

organ trafficking in foreign countries and on U.S.

institutions which train organ transplant surgeons.

We urge you to vote in favor of HR 1503--the Stop Forced

Organ Harvesting Act of 2025.

Your support and passage of this legislation will ensure

that the United States is combating and not complicit in the

heinous practice of forced organ harvesting.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this

legislation.

Respectfully,

Susie Hughes,

Executive Director, International Coalition to End

Transplant Abuse in China.

Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett,

President, Lantos Foundation.

Kristina Olney,

Executive Director, The Remembrance Society.

Dr. Ellen Kennedy,

Executive Director, World Without Genocide.

Dr. Eric Patterson,

President, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Bob Fu,

Founding President, China Aid.

Levi Browde,

Executive Director, Falun Dafa Information Centre.

Turghunjan Alawudun,

President, World Uyghur Congress.

Louisa Greve,

Director of Global Advocacy, Uyghur Human Rights Project.

Mr. Speaker, we must act now, and we must act decisively. The lives of so many lie in the balance.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1503) to combat forced organ harvesting and trafficking in persons for purposes of the removal of organs, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous materials on this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, we gather today to confront one of the most unconscionable human rights atrocities of our time. It is amazing that we have to speak about this. It is the State-sponsored, forced harvesting of human organs.

Innocent people, often prisoners of conscience, are being killed so that their vital organs can be removed and sold. This is a billion- dollar black market built on murder. It is a direct assault on every principle of human dignity and decency.

H.R. 1503, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025, is a bipartisan moral imperative. It holds perpetrators accountable and targets the heart of this depraved industry.

This bill sends a clear message: The United States will not be complicit. If you take part in forced organ harvesting, we are coming after you. It imposes strong sanctions, strengthens reporting requirements, and authorizes the denial or revocation of passports for convicted traffickers who cross borders to commit these crimes. I would say that is the least we could be doing.

The legislation rightly identifies those responsible, including members of the Chinese Communist Party, who have been credibly accused by human rights organizations and U.N. experts of orchestrating systematic, state-run organ harvesting, primarily targeting prisoners of conscience from religious and ethnic minority groups.

This is not speculation. The evidence is overwhelming. International investigations, eyewitness testimony, and growing data confirm that these abuses are occurring on a massive scale. They are crimes against humanity.

The bill is a necessary tool to fight that evil. It aligns our foreign policy with our core values: human rights, rule of law, and the sanctity of life. As chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I am proud to support it.

I thank my colleagues, Mr. Smith of New Jersey and Mr. Keating of Massachusetts, for leading this bipartisan effort. The bill passed the Foreign Affairs Committee with broad, bipartisan support, and I urge my colleagues to join in advancing it on the floor today.

We must make it unmistakably clear: Forced organ harvesting will not be tolerated. It will not be tolerated in this world, and those who carry it out, support it, or profit from it will face serious consequences.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

House of Representatives,

Committee on the Judiciary,

Washington, DC, May 1, 2025.

Hon. Brian Mast,

Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs,

House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Mast: I write regarding H.R. 1503, the Stop

Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025. Provisions of this bill

fall within the Judiciary Committee's Rule X jurisdiction,

and I appreciate that you consulted with us on those

provisions. The Judiciary Committee agrees that it shall be

discharged from further consideration of the bill so that it

may proceed expeditiously to the House floor.

The Committee takes this action with the understanding that

forgoing further consideration of this measure does not in

any way alter the Committee's jurisdiction or waive any

future jurisdictional claim over these provisions or their

subject matter. We also reserve the right to seek appointment

of an appropriate number of conferees in the event of a

conference with the Senate involving this measure or similar

legislation.

I ask that you please insert this letter in the

Congressional Record during consideration of H.R. 1503 on the

House floor. I appreciate the cooperative manner in which our

committees have worked on this matter, and I look forward to

working collaboratively in the future on matters of shared

jurisdiction. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Jim Jordan,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), who is the sponsor of this legislation and the chairman of the Africa Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, the United States has to lead with moral clarity. We have to send an unmistakable message that the human body is not a currency, it is not a commodity, and it is never for sale.

Forced organ harvesting is pure evil, and if we don't act, then we will be considered complicit.

Mr. Speaker, I urge every one of my colleagues to stand firm for human dignity and support H.R. 1503, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for allowing this bill to come to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I am here today to urge support of and for H.R. 1540, the Falun Gong Protection Act, a bill I have introduced to confront one of the most egregious, barbaric, and medieval human rights atrocities of our current time.

As we stand on the precipice of this vote, I ask you to join me in taking a stand against the Chinese Communist Party's systematic persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

Since the early 1990s, the Falun Gong, a spiritual practice rooted in the principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance, has been targeted by the Chinese Communist Party. By 1999, Mr. Speaker, an estimated 70 million to 100 million people, roughly 5 to 7 percent of China's population, were practicing Falun Gong.

This popularity triggered a brutal response from the CCP, unleashing a campaign of illegal detentions, forced labor, torture, and most horrifically, forced organ harvesting, a practice that amounts to mass murder.

On July 20, 1999, the CCP detained hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners and banned their practice outright. Since then, the persecution has only intensified.

Multiple studies, including the 2020 report from the Independent Tribunal Into Forced Organ Harvesting, have exposed an incomprehensible gap between the number of organ transplants performed in China and the number of registered donors.

Mr. Speaker, the math simply doesn't add up, and we all know why.

Just think about it: An independent tribunal into forced organ harvesting literally had to be set up to look into this because China is a closed society. Regardless of what people might think because we are allowed to travel to China, they are not showing you this part.

The CCP's secrecy ensures that China remains closed to scrutiny, but the evidence is clear: Falun Gong practitioners are the primary victims of this barbaric organ harvesting system.

The tribunal's findings are staggering. They concluded that forced organ harvesting has been committed for years on a massive scale with Falun Gong practitioners as the main source.

The report states that the CCP and its leaders have actively incited the persecution, imprisonment, murder, torture, and humiliation of these individuals solely to eradicate their beliefs. This is not just a violation of human rights; it is a crime against humanity.

Now, far away in the United States, many in the organ transplant community are unaware of China's illicit practices, shielded by the CCP's repressive control of information and global propaganda, but the truth is undeniable: The Chinese Communist Party has built an infrastructure to persecute millions of not only Falun Gong practitioners but also Uyghurs, Tibetans, Christians, and others it deems a threat.

The CCP's utter disregard for human life shocks the conscience. This barbaric practice must end, and it must end now.

H.R. 1540 is a historic step forward, the first binding commitment by Congress to take decisive legal action against the persecution and forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners.

This bill imposes sanctions on those who would participate in or facilitate forced organ harvesting in China. It directs the Secretary of State to investigate whether the CCP's actions constitute crimes against humanity or genocide and to report on China's organ transplant policies. It also establishes U.S. policy to reject any cooperation with the PRC's illicit organ transplant industry while the CCP remains in power.

Mr. Speaker, this bill paves the way for accountability, sanctions, punishment, and acknowledgement of those complicit in these atrocities.

The Speaker pro tempore (Mr. Patronis). The time of the gentleman has expired.

The United States cannot continue to stand idly by. We must use our authority. We must use our position as leaders in the world to curb these practices and send a clear message to everybody that not only will we not tolerate this assault on human dignity, on humanity itself, but that no country, no people should.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a vote in favor of H.R. 1540. Let us stand together not just for Falun Gong practitioners but for the millions suffering under the CCP's oppression and tyranny. Let us affirm that the United States will always champion truth, compassion, and tolerance.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chair, again, for bringing the bill to the floor.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1540) to provide for the imposition of sanctions with respect to forced organ harvesting within the People's Republic of China, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this issue.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1540, Mr. Perry's Falun Gong Protection Act.

For decades, the House of Representatives has been raising alarms about organ harvesting perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party. We spoke about it earlier.

As United Nations human rights experts stated in 2021: ``Forced organ harvesting in China appears to be targeting specific ethnic, linguistic, or religious minorities held in detention, often without being [informed of] the reasons for their arrest or provided arrest warrants.''

Among those most frequently reported as targets are Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang Province. These detainees, often imprisoned for their beliefs, are subjected to medical procedures that other prisoners are not: blood draws, organ examinations, and ultrasound scans. These are not for their health.

These results are then entered into a database, turning them into a human inventory for a state-run organ harvesting system.

This is barbaric. These crimes, these abuses by the Chinese Communist Party, must end. I think we can all agree that they have to come to an end.

The legislation before us today, the Falun Gong Protection Act, takes long-overdue action to confront this horror. It directs the U.S. Government to identify and publicly name individuals and entities involved in forced organ harvesting in China. It imposes targeted sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act, including visa bans and asset freezes, against those responsible. It strengthens reporting requirements for the State Department, ensuring that U.S. foreign policy fully accounts for the scope of organ trafficking abuses.

Madam Speaker, I urge support of this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

House of Representatives,

Committee on the Judiciary,

Washington, DC, May 1, 2025.

Hon. Brian Mast,

Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs,

House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Mast: I write regarding H.R. 1540, the Falun

Gong Protection Act. Provisions of this bill fall within the

Judiciary Committee's Rule X jurisdiction, and I appreciate

that you consulted with us on those provisions. The Judiciary

Committee agrees that it shall be discharged from further

consideration of the bill so that it may proceed

expeditiously to the House floor.

The Committee takes this action with the understanding that

forgoing further consideration of this measure does not in

any way alter the Committee's jurisdiction or waive any

future jurisdictional claim over these provisions or their

subject matter. We also reserve the right to seek appointment

of an appropriate number of conferees in the event of a

conference with the Senate involving this measure or similar

legislation.

I ask that you please insert this letter in the

Congressional Record during consideration of H.R. 1540 on the

House floor. I appreciate the cooperative manner in which our

committees have worked on this matter, and I look forward to

working collaboratively in the future on matters of shared

jurisdiction. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Jim Jordan,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry), the sponsor of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill signals that the United States will not tolerate the use of state violence to extract profit from the bodies of the persecuted.

I thank my friend, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry), along with his bipartisan cosponsors for their leadership on this critical human rights issue.

Mr. Speaker, I urge strong support of this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1503. I also thank Representatives Smith and Keating for introducing this bill, which, as the chairman mentioned, passed in the 118th Congress. I also thank my colleague and chairman for bringing this and many other important bipartisan bills to the floor today.

According to the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, the trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal is one of the least reported and least understood forms of trafficking but one that experts believe may be growing. Like sex trafficking and labor trafficking, it is ultimately a crime that exploits human beings for economic profit.

The State Department's 2023 Human Rights Report highlights troubling allegations regarding the Government of the People's Republic of China forcibly harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience, including religious and spiritual adherents.

Mr. Speaker, I worry deeply about the administration's proposed State Department reorganization plans that will gut the funding and experts working to address these crimes, giving the PRC and others a pass. Instead of these cuts, the administration should be strengthening efforts to address forced organ harvesting and trafficking.

H.R. 1503 shines a light on this horrible practice and calls on the State Department to make its annual reporting on the issue more robust and more in-depth. Not only does it call for more regular assessments of the problem, it also authorizes the imposition of sanctions on individuals who are involved in forced organ harvesting or trafficking.

The legislation will make sure the U.S. is carefully gathering all the facts

to make an informed assessment on the magnitude and prevalence of this problem and developing appropriate responses.

The trafficking of persons for the purpose of organ removal is a form of trafficking in which an individual is exploited for their organs, including by coercion, deception, and abuse of a position of vulnerability. It is abhorrent, repugnant, and dehumanizing.

I support this legislation, I urge all of my colleagues to likewise support it again in this Congress, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for the purpose of closing.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1503 is an important, bipartisan measure. We know that organ harvesting has been a problem in different places around the globe. We don't know yet the full extent of the problem, and it is certainly a practice that is difficult to detect and track.

The bill before us is a strong and important step forward. It calls on the State Department to provide important information to Congress, to the American public, and to the world about the global scope of organ harvesting and trafficking.

This bill will help inform Congress so that we can ensure the U.S. can respond appropriately.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this measure, and I yield back the balance of my time.