A Week of Anti-Forced Organ Harvesting Efforts

The United States over the past week has made major steps forward in countering the Chinese regime’s forced organ harvesting, with two bills passing the House and one state signing a law on the effort.

The first one that the House passed is the Falun Gong Protection Act (HR 1540), which aims to sanction anyone involved in the forced harvesting of organs of Falun Gong practitioners.

The act instructs the United States to work with allies, partners, and multilateral institutions to raise awareness about the persecution of Falun Gong, which the Chinese regime has tried to eliminate since 1999, and coordinate targeted sanctions and visa restrictions with the international community.

It requires the heads of the State Department, Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health to submit a report within a year of the bill’s enactment detailing China’s organ transplant policies and practices, including with regard to prisoners of conscience such as detained Falun Gong practitioners. The report would include a list of the U.S. grants over the previous decade that have supported Chinese research in the organ transplantation field or in collaboration between a Chinese and U.S. entity.

A second congressional bill, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act (HR 1503), passed on May 7 with a 406–1 vote. The bill, like the Falun Gong Protection Act, aims to use sanctions to curb the abuse. It notes that members of the Chinese Communist Party who are complicit would also face punishment, with their property blocked, visas revoked, and U.S. transactions banned.

Both bills include a potential civil penalty of $250,000 and a criminal penalty of up to $1 million and 20 years in prison.

“We need a penalty that’s commensurate with the crime, and the crime is outrageous,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), lead sponsor of the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act, told The Epoch Times ahead of the Wednesday vote.

He said the bill will help make sure all parts of the U.S. government are “very well aware of this horrific reality.”

“It has been stealth. There’s been a cover-up for far too many years by many of the China hands—the people that work on K Street and just talk about trade, trade, trade,” he said. “I’m for trade as long as it’s principled and based on human rights.”

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who leads the Falun Gong Protection Act, said the bill was the first legally binding commitment for Congress to act against the persecution and the forced organ harvesting abuse targeting Falun Gong.

“We know that the numbers don’t add up,” he said, told The Epoch Times. “Everything points to what they’re doing, but it’s been too easy for all countries, including the United States, to just turn a blind eye to what we’re pretty confident is happening, which is horrific.”

Between the two bill’s passage, Arizona signed into law a bill named Arizona End Organ Harvesting Act, that allows insurance providers, including subscription contracts, health care services organizations, disability insurers, and the state’s Medicaid agency, to deny or limit coverage for a patient receiving an organ transplant from mainland China or Hong Kong, or if the surgery is performed in the region.

The bill’s sponsor state Rep. Leo Biasiucci said the outcome was “a long time coming.”

“It’s crazy to think this is happening in the year 2025, so I think it took a little bit of time for people to understand this is real,” he told The Epoch Times.

But “once people realize exactly what the CCP’s doing, you cannot turn a blind eye.”