(Minghui.org) Senator Adam Schiff [D-CA] has co-sponsored S.4009, the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act, on June 1, bringing forward this important legislation that aims to end the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) brutality against Falun Gong practitioners.
Senator Adam Schiff
Initiated by Senator Ted Cruz [R-TX] on March 5, S.4009 was also co-sponsored by Senator Jeff Merkley [D-OR]. Full text of the legislation can be found at: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/4009
“The Chinese Communist Party operates a brutal, state-sponsored organ harvesting industry that targets people for their faith. The CCP has in particular targeted Falun Gong practitioners, committing assaults on religious liberty and fundamental human rights,” wrote Sen. Cruz.
“The United States should hold accountable those who have committed these atrocities, I’m grateful to Senator Merkley for joining me in introducing this critical bipartisan legislation and urge our colleagues to expeditiously advance it,” he continued.
S.4009 aims to impose sanctions on individuals and entities in China that carry out or assist in the practice of organ harvesting. It also requires the US government to conduct a full investigation into the CCP’s organ transplant policies and atrocities.
The legislation explicitly states that “forced organ harvesting” means “the removal of one or more organs from an individual by means of coercion, abduction, deception, fraud, or abuse of power or a position of vulnerability.”
According to S.4009, within 180 days of its enactment, the US President must submit a list to Congress detailing foreign individuals and entities known to have directly participated in or assisted in the forced organ harvesting in China. Those on the list will face severe sanctions, including: freezing their property and assets within the United States or under US jurisdiction; prohibiting them from entering the United States; revoking their existing visas and other entry permits; and disqualifying them from receiving US immigration benefits.
The bill also stipulates that the US Secretary of State must submit a special report to Congress within one year of the legislation’s enactment, comprehensively investigating and evaluating China’s organ transplant system. This includes: the CCP’s actual policies and operations regarding organ transplantation; the persecution and forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience (including Falun Gong practitioners); an assessment of the annual number of organ transplants in China and the sources of organs; and whether there is a significant discrepancy between the wait time for organ transplants in China and the number of donors.
The report will also examine if US funding supported organ transplant research in China over the past decade and assess whether the CCP’s practice of forced organ harvesting constitutes an “atrocity” as defined by the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018.
For years, substantial evidence has shown that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has systematically harvested organs from Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience. The China Tribunal, an independent civilian court in London, UK, ruled in 2019 that the CCP’s long-term, large-scale forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience is taking place, with Falun Gong practitioners being one of the main victims.
The US Congress and several state legislatures passed resolutions and legislation condemning the CCP’s crimes of forced organ harvesting. The senators’ support of S.4009 demonstrates the growing concern regarding the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong and forced organ harvesting. It also reflects the rising international call to hold accountable those responsible and to stop this crime against humanity.
Prior to the introduction of S.4009, the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act, Congress pushed for similar legislation. In May 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed the Falun Gong Protection Act, which was introduced by Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
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