[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 74 (Monday, May 5, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H1819-H1822]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STOP FORCED ORGAN HARVESTING ACT OF 2025
Mr. MAST. 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.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1503
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 ``Stop Forced Organ Harvesting
Act of 2025''.
SEC. 2. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It shall be the policy of the United States--
(1) to combat international trafficking in persons for
purposes of the removal of organs;
(2) to promote the establishment of voluntary organ
donation systems with effective enforcement mechanisms in
bilateral diplomatic meetings and in international health
forums;
(3) to promote the dignity and security of human life in
accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
adopted on December 10, 1948; and
(4) to hold accountable persons implicated, including
members of the Chinese Communist Party, in forced organ
harvesting and trafficking in persons for purposes of the
removal of organs.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Appropriate committees of congress.--The term
``appropriate committees of Congress'' means--
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on
the Judiciary of the Senate; and
(B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on
the Judiciary of the House of Representatives.
(2) Forced organ harvesting.--The term ``forced organ
harvesting'' means the removal of one or more organs from a
person by means of coercion, abduction, deception, fraud, or
abuse of power or a position of vulnerability.
(3) Organ.--The term ``organ'' has the meaning given the
term ``human organ'' in section 301(c)(1) of the National
Organ Transplant Act (42 U.S.C. 274e(c)(1)).
(4) Trafficking in persons for purposes of the removal of
organs.--The term ``trafficking in persons for purposes of
the removal of organs'' means the recruitment,
transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of a person
for the purpose of removing one or more of such person's
organs, by means of--
(A) coercion;
(B) abduction;
(C) deception;
(D) fraud;
(E) abuse of power or a position of vulnerability; or
(F) transfer of payments or benefits to achieve the consent
of a person having control over a person described in the
matter preceding subparagraph (A).
SEC. 4. AUTHORITY TO DENY OR REVOKE PASSPORTS.
(a) In General.--The Secretary of State may refuse to issue
a passport to any individual who has been convicted of an
offense under section 301 of the National Organ Transplant
Act (42 U.S.C. 274e) and is subject to imprisonment or parole
or other supervised release as the result of such conviction
if such individual, in the commission of such an offense,
used a passport or crossed an international border.
(b) Revocation.--The Secretary of State may revoke a
passport previously issued to any individual described in
subsection (a).
SEC. 5. REPORTS ON FORCED ORGAN HARVESTING AND TRAFFICKING IN
PERSONS FOR PURPOSES OF THE REMOVAL OF ORGANS
IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.)
is amended--
(1) in section 116 (22 U.S.C. 2151n), by adding at the end
the following:
``(h) Forced Organ Harvesting and Trafficking in Persons
for Purposes of the Removal of Organs.--
``(1) In general.--The report required by subsection (d)
shall include an assessment of forced organ harvesting and
trafficking in persons for purposes of the removal of organs
in each foreign country.
``(2) Definitions.--In this subsection:
``(A) Forced organ harvesting.--The term `forced organ
harvesting' means the removal of one or more organs from a
person by means of coercion, abduction, deception, fraud, or
abuse of power or a position of vulnerability.
``(B) Organ.--The term `organ' has the meaning given the
term `human organ' in section 301(c)(1) of the National Organ
Transplant Act (42 U.S.C. 274e(c)(1)).
``(C) Trafficking in persons for purposes of the removal of
organs.--The term `trafficking in persons for purposes of the
removal of organs' means the recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harboring, or receipt of a person for the purpose
of removing one or more of such person's organs, by means
of--
``(i) coercion;
``(ii) abduction;
``(iii) deception;
``(iv) fraud;
``(v) abuse of power or a position of vulnerability; or
``(vi) transfer of payments or benefits to achieve the
consent of a person having control over a person described in
the matter preceding clause (i).''; and
(2) in section 502B (22 U.S.C. 2304)--
(A) by redesignating the second subsection (i) (relating to
child marriage status) as subsection (j); and
(B) by adding at the end the following:
``(k) Forced Organ Harvesting and Trafficking in Persons
for Purposes of the Removal of Organs.--
``(1) In general.--The report required by subsection (b)
shall include an assessment of forced organ harvesting and
trafficking in persons for purposes of the removal of organs
in each foreign country.
``(2) Definitions.--In this subsection, the terms `forced
organ harvesting', `organ', and `trafficking in persons for
purposes of the removal of organs' have the meanings given
those terms in section 116(h)(2).''.
SEC. 6. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO FORCED ORGAN
HARVESTING OR TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS FOR
PURPOSES OF THE REMOVAL OF ORGANS.
(a) List Required.--Not later than 180 days after the date
of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to
the appropriate committees of Congress a list of each person
that the President determines funds, sponsors, or otherwise
facilitates forced organ harvesting or trafficking in persons
for purposes of the removal of organs.
(b) Imposition of Sanctions.--The President shall impose
the following sanctions with respect to a person on the list
required by subsection (a):
(1) Property blocking.--The President shall exercise all of
the powers granted 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 all 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) Aliens inadmissible for visas, admission, or parole.--
(A) Visas, admission, or parole.--In the case of an
individual, that individual 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) Current visas revoked.--
(i) In general.--The visa or other entry documentation of
the individual shall be revoked, regardless of when such visa
or other entry documentation is or was issued.
(ii) Immediate effect.--A revocation under clause (i)
shall--
(I) take effect immediately; and
(II) automatically cancel any other valid visa or entry
documentation that is in the individual's possession.
(c) Exceptions.--
(1) Exception relating to importation of goods.--
(A) In general.--The authorities and requirements to impose
sanctions under subsection (b)(1) shall not include the
authority or a requirement to impose sanctions on the
importation of goods.
(B) Good defined.--In this paragraph, the term ``good''
means any article, natural or manmade substance, material,
supply or manufactured product, including inspection and test
equipment, and excluding technical data.
(2) Exception to comply with international obligations.--
Subsection (b)(2) shall not apply to the admission of an
individual if the admission of the individual is necessary to
comply with United States obligations under the Agreement
between the United Nations and the United States of America
regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations, signed at
Lake Success June 26, 1947, and entered into force November
21, 1947, under the Convention on Consular Relations, done at
Vienna April 24, 1963, and entered into force March 19, 1967,
or under other applicable international agreements or
treaties.
(3) Exception relating to the provision of humanitarian
assistance.--Sanctions under this section may not be imposed
with respect to transactions or the facilitation of
transactions for--
(A) the sale of agricultural commodities, food, or
medicine;
(B) the provision of vital humanitarian assistance;
(C) financial transactions relating to vital humanitarian
assistance or for vital humanitarian purposes; or
(D) transporting goods or services that are necessary to
carry out operations relating to vital humanitarian
assistance.
[[Page H1820]]
(4) Waiver.--The President may, on a case-by-case basis and
for periods not to exceed 180 days each, waive the
application of sanctions or restrictions imposed with respect
to a person under this section if the President certifies to
the appropriate committees of Congress not later than 15 days
before such waiver is to take effect that the waiver is vital
to the national security interests of the United States.
(d) Implementation; Penalties.--
(1) Implementation.--The President may exercise all
authorities provided under sections 203 and 205 of the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702
and 1704) to carry out this section.
(2) Penalties.--A person that violates, attempts to
violate, conspires to violate, or causes a violation of this
section or any regulation, license, or order issued to carry
out this section shall be subject to the penalties set forth
in subsections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705)
to the same extent as a person that commits an unlawful act
described in subsection (a) of that section.
(e) Definitions.--In this section--
(1) the term ``person''--
(A) means an individual or entity; and
(B) includes a non-state actor (as such term is defined in
Public Law 114-281); and
(2) the term ``United States person'' means--
(A) a United States citizen or an alien lawfully admitted
for permanent residence to the United States; or
(B) an entity organized under the laws of the United States
or any jurisdiction within the United States, including a
foreign branch of such an entity.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. Mast) and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Olszewski) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida.
General Leave
Mr. MAST. 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.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Florida?
There was no objection.
Mr. MAST. 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.
____
House of Representatives,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC, May 1, 2025.
Hon. Jim Jordan,
Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Jordan: Thank you for consulting with the
Committee on Foreign Affairs and agreeing to be discharged
from further consideration of H.R. 1503, the Stop Forced
Organ Harvesting Act of 2025, so that the measure may proceed
expeditiously to the House floor.
I agree that your forgoing further action on this measure
does not in any way diminish or alter the jurisdiction of
your committee or prejudice its jurisdictional prerogatives
on this measure or similar legislation in the future. I would
support your effort to seek appointments of any appropriate
number of conferees from your committee to any House-Senate
conference of this legislation.
I will submit the exchange of letters to be published in
the Congressional Record. I appreciate your cooperation
regarding this legislation and look forward to continuing to
work together on matters of shared jurisdiction during this
Congress.
Sincerely,
Brian J. Mast,
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Mr. OLSZEWSKI. 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
[[Page H1821]]
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. MAST. 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. SMITH of New Jersey. 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.
{time} 1515
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.
[[Page H1822]]
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. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, we must act now, and we must
act decisively. The lives of so many lie in the balance.
Mr. OLSZEWSKI. 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.
Mr. MAST. 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.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mast) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 1503.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. MAST. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
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