Senate Passes Bill to Sanction Perpetrators of Forced Organ Harvesting in China

The Senate on Sept. 28 passed a bill targeting individuals involved in forced organ harvesting in China.

The bipartisan Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act (S.4009) passed with unanimous consent. It’s now headed to the House for approval.   

If the bill becomes law, it will sanction any foreign individuals who have knowingly and directly engaged in the abuse or facilitated it in China, a destination for patients worldwide who are desperate for organs.

Such individuals would be unable to enter the United States, and their U.S. property and transactions would be blocked. Violators could face criminal punishment of up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

The bill also calls on the U.S. government to investigate allegations of forced organ harvesting “involving Falun Gong practitioners.” The United States should condemn “illegal, coercive, non-consensual, or non-transparent organ procurement and transplantation practices, including forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience,” the bill states.

The secretary of state would report to Congress within a year of the bill’s passage regarding China’s organ transplantation practices and policies. The report would make a formal determination on whether the Chinese regime engages in systematic forced organ harvesting and assess the source of organs for transplant surgeries, procurement times, and relevant policies regarding prisoners of conscience, such as Falun Gong practitioners—a faith group that human rights investigators in 2019 deemed as the primary source of organs.

The bill states that if forced organ harvesting is indeed taking place at scale in China, U.S. officials would need to determine whether the abuse constitutes an “atrocity.”

The meditation practice Falun Gong, which focuses on truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, was popular in China during the 1990s. By some estimates, it had drawn somewhere between 70 million and 100 million adherents nationwide by 1999, when the regime set out to eliminate it. The number of practitioners detained over the years is likely to be in the millions, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he was proud to work with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) to get the bill through the Senate.

“The Chinese Communist Party continues to target Falun Gong practitioners through its brutal, state-sponsored organ harvesting industry,” he told The Epoch Times. “These atrocities are an assault on religious liberty and fundamental human rights.”

The bill currently has 11 co-sponsors. 

The House, in May 2025, passed a version of the bill, which the Senate broadened to involve the Intelligence Community in the investigation.

Erping Zhang, a spokesperson for Falun Gong, commended the Senate for taking the step. 

“S. 4009 recognizes that this is not simply a human-rights concern—it raises fundamental questions about accountability, transparency, and the protection of vulnerable people,” he told The Epoch Times.

He especially appreciated provisions requiring a comprehensive U.S. assessment of China’s organ-transplant system, as well as the examination of the prisoners of conscience’s treatment. 

“An issue of this magnitude deserves a clear and authoritative assessment based on evidence,” Zhang said.

The bill ensures that “the United States stands firmly against forced organ harvesting and other forms of human rights abuses,” he said.

“This is ultimately about a simple principle: No person should be persecuted, imprisoned, or killed so that their organs can be taken for transplantation.”

Zhang also said that as the leader of the free world, the United States should “continue to use its laws and institutions to protect human dignity and hold perpetrators accountable.”