[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 106 (Tuesday, June 25, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H4133-H4136]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1630
                       FALUN GONG PROTECTION ACT

  Mr. McCORMICK. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the

[[Page H4134]]

bill (H.R. 4132) to provide for the imposition of sanctions with 
respect to forced organ harvesting within the People's Republic of 
China, and for other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 4132

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Falun Gong Protection Act''.

     SEC. 2. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

       It is the policy of the United States to--
       (1) avoid any cooperation with the PRC in the organ 
     transplantation field while the Chinese Communist Party 
     remains in power;
       (2) take appropriate measures, including using relevant 
     sanctions authorities, to coerce the Chinese Communist Party 
     to end any state-sponsored organ harvesting campaign; and
       (3) work with allies, partners, and multilateral 
     institutions to highlight China's persecution of Falun Gong 
     and coordinate closely with the international community on 
     targeted sanctions and visa restrictions.

     SEC. 3. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO FORCED ORGAN 
                   HARVESTING WITHIN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF 
                   CHINA.

       (a) Imposition of Sanctions.--The President shall impose 
     the sanctions described in subsection (c) with respect to 
     each foreign person included in the most recent list 
     submitted pursuant to subsection (b).
       (b) List of Persons.--
       (1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
     the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to the 
     appropriate congressional committees a list of foreign 
     persons who the President determines to have knowingly and 
     directly engaged in or facilitated the involuntary harvesting 
     of organs within the People's Republic of China.
       (2) Updates or lists.--The President shall submit to the 
     appropriate congressional committees an updated list under 
     paragraph (1)--
       (A) as new information becomes available;
       (B) not later than one year after the date of the enactment 
     of this Act; and
       (C) annually thereafter until the date of termination under 
     subsection (h).
       (3) Form.--The list required by paragraph (1) shall be 
     submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified 
     annex.
       (c) Sanctions Described.--The sanctions described in this 
     subsection are the following:
       (1) Blocking of property.--The President shall exercise all 
     of the powers granted to the President by the International 
     Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) 
     (except that the requirements of section 202 of such Act (50 
     U.S.C. 1701) shall not apply) to the extent necessary to 
     block and prohibit all transactions in property and interests 
     in property of the person if such property and interests in 
     property are in the United States, come within the United 
     States, or are or come within the possession or control of a 
     United States person.
       (2) Inadmissibility of certain individuals.--
       (A) Ineligibility for visas, admission, or parole.--A 
     foreign person included in the most recent list submitted 
     pursuant to subsection (b) is--
       (i) inadmissible to the United States;
       (ii) ineligible to receive a visa or other documentation to 
     enter the United States; and
       (iii) otherwise ineligible to be admitted or paroled into 
     the United States or to receive any other benefit under the 
     Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.).
       (B) Currrnt visas revoked.--A foreign person described in 
     subparagraph (A) is also subject to the following:
       (i) Revocation of any visa or other entry documentation 
     regardless of when the visa or other entry documentation is 
     or was issued.
       (ii) A revocation under clause (i) shall take effect 
     immediately and automatically cancel any other valid visa or 
     entry documentation that is in the foreign person's 
     possession.
       (3) Exception.--Sanctions under paragraph (2) shall not 
     apply to an alien if admitting or paroling the alien into the 
     United States is necessary to permit the United States to 
     comply with the Agreement regarding the Headquarters of the 
     United Nations, signed at Lake Success June 26, 1947, and 
     entered into force November 21, 1947, between the United 
     Nations and the United States, or other applicable 
     international obligations of the United States.
       (d) Penalties.--The penalties provided for in subsections 
     (b) and (c) of section 206 of the International Emergency 
     Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) shall apply to a person 
     who violates, attempts to violate, conspires to violate, or 
     causes a violation of regulations promulgated to carry out 
     subsection (a) to the same extent that such penalties apply 
     to a person who commits an unlawful act described in section 
     206(a) of that Act.
       (e) Exception To Comply With National Security.--The 
     following activities shall be exempt from sanctions under 
     this section:
       (1) Activities subject to the reporting requirements under 
     title V of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3091 
     et seq.).
       (2) Any authorized intelligence or law enforcement 
     activities of the United States.
       (f) Exception Relating to Provision of Humanitarian 
     Assistance.--Sanctions under this section may not be imposed 
     with respect to transactions or the facilitation of 
     transactions for--
       (1) the sale of agricultural commodities, food, or 
     medicine;
       (2) the provision of vital humanitarian assistance;
       (3) financial transactions relating to humanitarian 
     assistance or for humanitarian purposes; or
       (4) transporting goods or services that are necessary to 
     carry out operations relating to humanitarian assistance or 
     humanitarian purposes.
       (g) Waiver Authority.--
       (1) Waiver.--The President may, on a case by case basis, 
     waive the imposition of any sanction under this section if 
     the President determines such waiver is in the vital national 
     security interest of the United States.
       (2) Reports.--Not later than 120 days after the date on 
     which the President submits the list under subsection (b), 
     and every 120 days thereafter until the date of termination 
     under subsection (h), the President shall submit to the 
     appropriate congressional committees a report on the extent 
     to which the President has used the waiver authority under 
     paragraph (1) during the period covered by that report.
       (h) Sunset.--The authority to impose sanctions under this 
     section shall terminate on the date that is 5 years after the 
     date of the enactment of this Act.

     SEC. 4. REPORT.

       (a) In General.--Not later than one year after the date of 
     the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State, in 
     consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
     and the Director of the National Institutes of Health, shall 
     submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report 
     on the organ transplant policies and practices of the 
     People's Republic of China.
       (b) Matters To Be Included.--The report required under 
     subsection (a) shall include--
       (1) a summary of de jure and de facto policies toward organ 
     transplantation in the PRC, including with respect to 
     prisoners of conscience (including Falun Gong) and other 
     prisoners;
       (2)(A) the number of organ transplants that are known to 
     occur or are estimated to occur on an annual basis in the 
     PRC;
       (B) the number of known or estimated voluntary organ donors 
     in the PRC;
       (C) an assessment of the sources of organs for transplant 
     in the PRC; and
       (D) an assessment of the time, in days, that it takes to 
     procure an organ for transplant within the Chinese medical 
     system and an assessment of whether such timetable is 
     possible based on the number of known or estimated organ 
     donors in the PRC;
       (3) a list of all United States grants over the past ten 
     years that have supported research on organ transplantation 
     in the PRC or in collaboration between a Chinese and a United 
     States entity; and
       (4) a determination as to whether the persecution of Falun 
     Gong practitioners within the People's Republic of China 
     constitutes an ``atrocity'' (as such term is defined in 
     section 6 of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities 
     Prevention Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-441; 22 U.S.C. 2656 
     note)).
       (c) Form.--The report required under subsection (a) shall 
     be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a 
     classified annex.

     SEC. 5. EXCEPTION RELATING TO IMPORTATION OF GOODS.

       (a) In General.--The authorities and requirements to impose 
     sanctions authorized under this Act shall not include the 
     authority or requirement to impose sanctions on the 
     importation of goods.
       (b) Good Defined.--In this section, the term ``good'' means 
     any article, natural or man-made substance, material, supply 
     or manufactured product, including inspection and test 
     equipment, and excluding technical data.

     SEC. 6. APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES DEFINED.

       In this Act, the term ``appropriate congressional 
     committees'' means--
       (1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of 
     Representatives; and
       (2) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. McCormick) and the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stanton) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Georgia.


                             General Leave

  Mr. McCORMICK. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to 
include extraneous material on this measure.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Georgia?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. McCORMICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, for decades the House of Representatives has been 
raising alarms about the ghoulish organ harvesting perpetrated by the 
Chinese Communist Party.
  The People's Republic of China executes thousands of people a year, 
several times more than the rest of the

[[Page H4135]]

world combined, but they hide those killings from outsiders, claiming 
that execution information is a state secret.
  Behind that veil of secrecy lies a terrifying reality. For years, 
testimony and investigative reports have asserted that organs are 
forcibly harvested as part of an extremely lucrative trade in human 
organs for transplant into those in the good graces of the party, and 
for those, including foreigners, willing to pay top dollar.
  As summarized in 2021 by United Nations human rights officials, 
``forced organ harvesting in China appears to be targeting specific 
ethnic, linguistic, or religious minorities held in detention, often 
without being explained the reasons for arrest or given arrest 
warrants.''
  Falun Gong adherents and Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang are among those 
reportedly targeted. Certain religious and ethnic minority detainees 
are reportedly subjected to nonconsensual tests not required of other 
prisoners, such as blood tests, organ exams, and ultrasound scans, with 
the results being entered into a database of living organ sources.
  These depraved CCP abuses must stop. The bill before us today 
requires the identification and sanctioning of those involved in 
China's involuntary organ harvesting.
  I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry) and his 
bipartisan cosponsors for introducing this legislation. I also commend 
Chairman McCaul and Ranking Member Meeks for marking it up and getting 
it to the floor.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve 
the balance of my time.
  Mr. STANTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4132, and 
I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4132 imposes sanctions on individuals who knowingly 
and directly engaged in or facilitated the involuntary harvesting of 
organs within the People's Republic of China. The State Department's 
2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices highlight that the 
Government of the PRC has been accused of forcibly harvesting organs 
from prisoners of conscience, including religious and spiritual 
adherents.
  The illegal harvesting of organs is not only a violation of human 
rights but also an assault on human dignity. Imagine the terror and 
despair of those who are imprisoned for their beliefs, only to have 
their organs forcibly taken from them. These individuals are subjected 
to unimaginable suffering, their most basic rights stripped away, and 
their bodies violated in the most grotesque manner. This is not just a 
statistic or a distant issue, these are real people, people with 
families and dreams who endure unbelievable pain and fear.
  The House has already spoken on this issue by passing Mr. Smith's 
Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act in March. Today we have another 
opportunity to take a stand against this inhumane practice. By 
supporting H.R. 4132, we are sending a clear message that the United 
States will not tolerate such egregious violations of human rights. 
This bill ensures that those who knowingly and directly engaged in or 
facilitated forced organ harvesting face significant sanctions.
  We don't know a lot about this crime of forced organ harvesting, but 
the report required in this bill will give us a better understanding of 
the scope of the problem so that we may address it in a targeted way. 
We cannot remain silent in the face of such cruelty. We must stand up 
for the victims, show them that they are not forgotten, and hold the 
perpetrators accountable.
  It is our moral duty to act, to protect the vulnerable, and to uphold 
human dignity. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support 
this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McCORMICK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry), who is the author of the bill.
  Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the gentleman from 
Georgia, for yielding, and I thank my colleagues for their support of 
the bill. It is amazing, and it is very frightening that in 2024 we are 
having this discussion on the floor of the House of Representatives.
  Since the early 1990s, the Falun Gong has been targeted by the 
Chinese Communist Party. The Falun Gong is a spiritual practice of mind 
and body in which adherents follow the core principles of truth, 
compassion, and tolerance.
  In 1999, the Chinese Communist Party estimated that 70 to 100 million 
people were practicing Falun Gong, the equivalent of 5 to 7 percent of 
the Chinese population today. Mr. Speaker, Falun Gong's popularity 
quickly initiated violent persecution, including illegal detentions, 
forced labor, torture, and, yes, forced organ harvesting, which is a 
form of mass murder.
  This is something out of the thirties and Josef Mengele, but it is 
happening today.
  On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party detained hundreds of 
thousands of Falun Gong practitioners and banned any further practice 
of this religion. Since this date, the Chinese Communist Party has 
continued to escalate its systematic oppression against Falun Gong 
practitioners.

  On March 1, 2020, the Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ 
Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China found there to be an 
incomprehensible gap between the number of transplant operations 
carried out in the People's Republic of China in comparison to the 
number of eligible registered donors.
  What does that mean?
  That means in China, Mr. Speaker, if you have got the money, then 
there is no waiting list for you to get an organ. Go anywhere else in 
the civilized world and find that.
  What would that mean?
  That means there is a ready supply of these organs, because there is.
  Now their report concluded that forced organ harvesting has been 
committed for years throughout China on a significant scale and that 
Falun Gong practitioners have been and probably are the main source of 
organs for forced organ harvesting.
  In the U.S., many of those working in organ transplantation and those 
who benefit from transplantation systems are likely unaware. They just 
don't know of China's illegal practices.
  Through its repressive control of information, the CCP has created 
the infrastructure and resources needed to persecute millions of its 
own citizens, not only Falun Gong practitioners, but also Uyghurs, 
Tibetans, Christians, and any other the Chinese Communist Party chooses 
to target.
  This bill is the first binding commitment by Congress to take strong 
legal action against the persecution and the forced organ harvesting of 
Falun Gong, making Falun Gong the centerpiece of legislation, an action 
long overdue after 25 years.
  The Falun Gong Protection Act imposes sanctions on those who 
participate in or facilitate the forced harvesting of organs in China. 
This bill directs the Secretary of State to determine whether the CCP's 
persecution of Falun Gong constitutes crimes against humanity or 
genocide alongside a required report on the CCP's organ transplant 
policies and practices.
  The Communist Party of China doesn't want us to see this. When you 
take a trip to China, Mr. Speaker, and see all the wonderful things and 
the wonderful people there, they are not going to invite you to see 
this. It is going to take us looking. It is going to take us focusing 
on it.
  Additionally, H.R. 4132 makes it U.S. policy to avoid any cooperation 
with the People's Republic of China in the illicit organ transplant 
industry.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of this bill, and I thank my friends on 
both sides of the aisle for their support.
  Mr. STANTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for 
the purpose of closing.
  Mr. Speaker, by supporting H.R. 4132, we are sending a clear message 
that the United States will sanction those who knowingly and directly 
engaged in or facilitated involuntary harvesting of organs within the 
People's Republic of China. This legislation sheds light on and 
condemns this horrific practice and holds to account those responsible.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this 
important bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. McCORMICK. Mr. Speaker, in closing, the idea that a member of a 
religious minority could be targeted and killed so that their organs 
could be harvested is worthy of a horror movie. It violates the basic 
tenets of our God-given rights, but that is allegedly what

[[Page H4136]]

the Chinese Communist Party has been doing for years.
  This bill before us today will impose visa- and property-blocking 
sanctions against those responsible for such atrocities. It deserves 
our unanimous support, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4132, 
the Falun Gong Protection Act, introduced by the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania, Rep. Scott Perry.
  The issue of the forced harvesting of human organs is one that is so 
horrific, and so evil, that it has truly consumed me ever since 
evidence of the practice began to trickle out at the end of the last 
century.
  I held a congressional hearing in 2012 that focused on ``Organ 
Harvesting of Religious and Political Dissidents by the Chinese 
Communist Party,'' though as early as 1998, witnesses at hearings I 
chaired had testified to the taking of organs from executed prisoners 
by Chinese government officials. This heinous practice soon 
matriculated to the most cruel instrument of religious and political 
persecution, targeting in particular peaceful practitioners of the 
Falun Gong religion.
  I co-convened a follow-up hearing in June of 2016 on ``Organ 
Harvesting: An Examination of a Brutal Practice.'' I noted at the time 
that the gruesome practice was not limited to the People's Republic of 
China--ISIS, for example, issued fatwas allowing the harvesting of 
organs of ``infidels,'' and Eritrean trafficking victims who could not 
produce sufficient funds were placed on a gurney and carved up in human 
chop shops in the Sinai peninsula. Yet by far and away the most 
systematic, and state-sanctioned harvesting of human organs, has 
occurred in Communist China.
  In 2022, a meta study came out in the American Journal of 
Transplantation that examined over 2,800 Chinese language academic 
articles concluding that Chinese transplant surgeons had routinely 
violated the ``dead donor'' rule, unethically removing organs before 
victims had been declared brain dead. Since 2015, data indicated that 
Chinese hospitals have performed many times more organ transplants than 
the highest estimates of ethically-available donors can account for.
  I thus invited one of the authors of that study, Dr. Matthew 
Robertson, to testify at a hearing I convened at the Tom Lantos Human 
Rights Commission on ``Forced Organ Harvesting in China: Examining the 
Evidence.''
  Finally, just this past March, the Congressional-Executive Commission 
on China held a hearing which I chaired on ``Stopping the Crime of 
Organ Harvesting--What More Must Be Done?''
  Shockingly, one of our witnesses, Dr. Maya Mitalipova, from MIT, 
implicated an American company, Thermo Fisher Scientific, in selling 
kits to identify human leukocyte antigens and other DNA profiling 
products in China, which enables the finding of compatible organ 
matches, to be obtained forcibly from hapless and helpless ``donors,'' 
killed for their organs.
  Beyond the hearings I have held over the years, I introduced the Stop 
Forced Organ Harvesting Act in 2021, and again reintroduced this bill 
at the beginning of this Congress. Indeed, our legislation passed out 
of the House over a year ago, in March of 2023, and has been 
languishing in the Senate since then.
  I view Rep. Perry's and my legislation as complementary, and I call 
upon the House to pass Mr. Perry's bill, and the Senate to move H.R. 
1154, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023, so that it can 
arrive on the President's desk for his signature.
  Finally, I note that the just-released State Department 2024 
Trafficking in Persons Report has focused its attention on the 
trafficking of persons for the purpose of organ removal as a topic of 
special interest, citing reports of systematic, forcible removal of 
organs from political prisoners by the government of the People's 
Republic of China.
  That the State Department did so I believe was in part due to the 
pressure imposed by Congress, which underscores the importance of what 
we are doing here today.
  I therefore call upon the House to pass H.R. 4132, and the Senate to 
move H.R. 1154 onto the President's desk.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. McCormick) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 4132, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________