S 4009
Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act
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Bill overview
This bill, the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act, aims to hold the Chinese government accountable for alleged forced organ harvesting. It authorizes the President to impose sanctions on foreign individuals and entities involved in or facilitating this practice, including blocking property, denying visas, and revoking existing visas. The bill also directs the State Department to report on China’s organ transplant policies and practices, and to determine if forced organ harvesting constitutes an atrocity. Finally, it establishes a sunset provision, ending the sanctions after five years.
Key provisions
- Authorizes the President to impose sanctions on foreign individuals and entities involved in forced organ harvesting.
- Lists specific sanctions, including property blocking, visa denial, and visa revocation.
- Requires the State Department to report on China’s organ transplant policies and practices.
- Directs the State Department to assess whether forced organ harvesting constitutes an atrocity.
- Establishes a 5-year sunset provision for the sanctions.
- Exempts humanitarian assistance, agricultural commodity sales, and certain intelligence activities from sanctions.
- Allows the President to waive sanctions on a case-by-case basis for national security reasons.
- Prohibits the importation of goods as a basis for sanctions.
Who is affected
- The People’s Republic of China
- Foreign individuals and entities involved in forced organ harvesting
- Chinese citizens
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119th CONGRESS — 2d Session
S. 4009
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
A BILL
To provide for the imposition of sanctions with respect to forced organ harvesting within the People’s Republic of China, and for other purposes.
This Act may be cited as the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act
.
In this Act:
appropriate congressional committeesmeans—
the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives; and
the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate.
The term 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.
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)).
The President shall impose the sanctions described in subsection (c) with respect to each foreign person included in the most recent list submitted under subsection (b).
The President shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees an updated list under paragraph (1)—
as new information becomes available;
not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act; and
annually thereafter until the date of termination under subsection (h).
The list required by paragraph (1) shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.
The sanctions described in this subsection are the following:
The President shall exercise all of the powers granted to the President 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 property and interests in property of a foreign person on the most recent list submitted under subsection (b) 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.
An alien included in the most recent list submitted under subsection (b) is—
inadmissible to the United States;
ineligible to receive a visa or other documentation to enter the United States; and
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.).
An alien described in subparagraph (A) is subject to revocation of any visa or other entry documentation regardless of when the visa or other entry documentation is or was issued.
A revocation under clause (i) shall, in accordance with section 221(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1201(i))—
take effect immediately; and
automatically cancel any other valid visa or entry documentation that is in the alien’s possession.
Sanctions under paragraph (2) shall not apply to an alien if admitting or paroling the alien into the United States is necessary to permit the United States to comply with the Agreement regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations, signed at Lake Success June 26, 1947, and entered into force November 21, 1947, between the United Nations and the United States, or other applicable international obligations of the United States.
The penalties provided for in subsections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) shall apply to a person who violates, attempts to violate, conspires to violate, or causes a violation of regulations promulgated to carry out subsection (a) to the same extent that such penalties apply to a person who commits an unlawful act described in section 206(a) of that Act.
The following activities shall be exempt from sanctions under this section:
Activities subject to the reporting requirements under title V of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3091 et seq.).
Any authorized intelligence or law enforcement activities of the United States.
the sale of agricultural commodities, food, or medicine;
the provision of humanitarian assistance;
The President may, on a case by case basis, waive the imposition of any sanction under this section if the President determines such waiver is in the national security interests of the United States.
Not later than 120 days after the date on which the President submits the first list under subsection (b)(1), and every 120 days thereafter until the date of termination under subsection (h), the President shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the extent to which the President has used the waiver authority under paragraph (1) during the 120-day period preceding submission of the report.
The authority to impose sanctions under this section shall terminate on the date that is 5 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.
In this section:
The terms admission
, admitted
, alien
, and lawfully admitted for permanent residence
have the meanings given those terms in section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101).
The term foreign person means an individual or entity that is not a United States person.
The term knowingly, with respect to conduct, a circumstance, or a result, means that a person had actual knowledge, or should have known, of the conduct, the circumstance, or the result.
The term United States person means—
a United States citizen or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence to the United States;
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; or
any person located in the United States.
Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Director of the National Institutes of Health, shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the organ transplant policies and practices of the People’s Republic of China.
The report required under subsection (a) shall include—
a summary of de jure and de facto policies toward organ transplantation in the People's Republic of China, including with respect to prisoners of conscience (including practitioners of Falun Gong), other prisoners, and victims of forced organ harvesting;
the number of organ transplants that are known to occur or are estimated to occur on an annual basis in the People's Republic of China;
the number of known or estimated voluntary organ donors in the People's Republic of China;
an assessment of the sources of organs for transplant in the People's Republic of China; and
an assessment of the time, in days, that it takes to procure an organ for transplant within the Chinese medical system and an assessment of whether such timetable is possible based on the number of known or estimated organ donors in the People's Republic of China;
a list of all United States grants during the 10 years before the date of the enactment of this Act that have supported research on organ transplantation in the People's Republic of China or in collaboration between a Chinese entity and a United States entity; and
a determination as to whether forced organ harvesting within the People’s Republic of China constitutes an atrocity
(as such term is defined in section 6 of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–441; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note)).
The report required under subsection (a) shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.
The authorities and requirements to impose sanctions authorized under this Act shall not include the authority or requirement to impose sanctions on the importation of goods.
In this section, the term good means any article, natural or man-made substance, material, supply or manufactured product, including inspection and test equipment, and excluding technical data.