A Senate bill that would address the crimes of forced organ harvesting in China gained more support recently, as calls continue for the Senate to vote on the legislation that was passed earlier this year.
Sen. David McCormick (R-Pa.) joined as a cosponsor of the Falun Gong Protection Act (S.817) earlier this month, bringing the total number of cosponsors of the legislation to eight. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the bill’s lead sponsor, introduced it in March.
The other cosponsors of the Senate bill are Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), and John Cornyn (R-Texas).
The legislation, passed by the House by voice vote with no objections in May, would hold accountable individuals involved in the forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners by imposing targeted sanctions such as visa restrictions, fines up to $1 million, and 20 years in prison.
It would also require the United States to make it a policy to avoid working with China on organ transplantation while the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is in power.
Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It was first introduced to the public in China in 1992 and quickly spread through word of mouth, reaching 70 million to 100 million people by 1999, according to official estimates.
Fearing that Falun Gong’s popularity would threaten its authority, the CCP launched a brutal campaign to eliminate the practice in July 1999. In the 26 years since, many have been detained in prison, labor camps, and brainwashing centers, where forced labor, torture, and deaths linked to forced organ harvesting have been reported.
In 2020, after an 18-month investigation, the China Tribunal, a London-based independent people’s tribunal, concluded that the Chinese regime had been forcibly harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience for years, with Falun Gong practitioners identified as the main victims.
Earlier this month, Dr. Torsten Trey, executive director of Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting, called on the Senate to vote on the legislation, during an interview with Arina Grossu Agnew, host of the “Bioethics Babe” podcast.
Trey said the legislation would help protect U.S. citizens from traveling to China for organ transplants and prevent perpetrators of the crimes from coming to the United States.
Currently, the legislation is “stuck” in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Trey said.
“We are confident that we will find enough people to vote for it because this is about human rights,” he stated, noting how the legislation was passed unanimously in the House because “nobody wants to give China a green light to continue forced organ harvesting.”
“So once it gets to a vote in the Foreign Relations Committee, we think there is a good chance that it will quickly go to the president’s desk,” Trey said.
Trey told Agnew’s podcast audience that they could support the legislation by calling their senators.
“If you can help and call your senators—two senators of your state—that would be highly appreciated,” Trey said.
In September, 10 Texas state senators wrote to Cruz in support of the legislation, saying that they “urge its swift advancement in the U.S. Senate.”
Sam Brownback, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, told The Epoch Times in October that Washington’s most effective weapon against Beijing’s deepest vulnerabilities is elevating religious freedom to a national security priority.
Speaking at a hearing on the Chinese regime’s war on faith held by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China on Nov. 20, Brownback said that the CCP’s persecution against Falun Gong should be considered a genocide.
“The Chinese Communist Party fears Falun Gong more than anybody,” Brownback said, because ever since the practice was introduced to the public, the number of practitioners “just grows.”
“Recognize a genocide against the Falun Gong being done by the Chinese government. They have sought to wipe them out.”
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