Congress targets forced organ harvesting with sanctions and passport revocation
H.R. 1503 — Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025 · Filed by Chris Smith (R-NJ) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Feb 21, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
This bill creates a federal framework to combat forced organ harvesting and trafficking for organ removal, primarily targeting practices alleged to occur in China. It authorizes the Secretary of State to deny or revoke passports for individuals convicted of organ trafficking crimes, requires the State Department to assess forced organ harvesting in foreign countries, and empowers the President to impose economic sanctions (asset freezes, visa revocations) on individuals and entities that fund or facilitate organ trafficking, with narrow exceptions for humanitarian aid and UN obligations.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a sanctions and enforcement regime targeting forced organ harvesting and trafficking—a severe human-rights violation. It does not create a new regulatory burden on citizens or businesses; instead, it arms the executive branch with tools to identify and punish perpetrators and their facilitators.
What the text implies
- The bill grants the President broad discretion to designate individuals and entities for sanctions based on a determination that they 'fund, sponsor, or otherwise facilitate' organ trafficking, with limited judicial review mechanisms specified in the text.
- Sanctions include automatic visa revocation and asset freezes that take effect immediately, potentially affecting individuals with tenuous connections to alleged trafficking without explicit due-process safeguards in the bill itself.
- The 180-day waiver authority allows the President to suspend sanctions on a case-by-case basis for national security reasons, creating potential for political discretion in enforcement.
- Reporting requirements in the Foreign Assistance Act amendments may create diplomatic friction with countries assessed as having forced organ harvesting, potentially affecting bilateral relations.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill strengthens protections against a severe human-rights violation (forced organ harvesting) by creating enforcement mechanisms, reporting requirements, and sanctions tools. Citizens benefit from clearer U.S. policy against organ trafficking and enhanced accountability for perpetrators, with no direct restrictions on ordinary citizens' rights or access to services.
Named in the bill
Secretary of State, President of the United States, Chinese Communist Party (named in policy statement), Department of State, Congress (House and Senate Committees on Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Judiciary), International Emergency Economic Powers Act, National Organ Transplant Act, Foreign Assistance Act of 1961
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Feb 21, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 21, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary and House Committee on Foreign Affairs · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period…”
- May 5, 2025 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Mast moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
- May 7, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $628,726 in lobbying spend. A filing names 36 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Chris Smith, the sponsor, reported $236,256 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Anti-defamation League — $590,000 on 2 filings
- Healthcare Institute of New Jersey — $38,726 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (9,337 characters) on Jun 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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