Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) have used America’s 250th anniversary to renew their support for Falun Gong practitioners, in statements sent to Minghui.org, a website documenting firsthand accounts of the persecution in China.

Young said America was founded on “the principle that every person is endowed with inherent dignity and the freedom to live according to their conscience.”

He said religious liberty and the rule of law have guided his work in the Senate, including his support for legislation targeting the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) persecution of Falun Gong.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice centered on the principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance. Introduced to the public in China in the early 1990s, it gained widespread popularity, reaching between 70 million and 100 million practitioners by the end of the decade, according to official estimates at the time.

In July 1999, the CCP, fearing that Falun Gong’s popularity threatened the regime’s power, launched a brutal campaign to eradicate the practice. Since then, many have suffered arbitrary detention, forced labor, torture, and even death from forced organ harvesting.

“Congress must continue exposing and sanctioning those responsible for the CCP’s human rights abuses,” Young said. He also called for stronger protections against the CCP’s intimidation of people in the United States.

Ryan, an Army veteran, cast his support in terms of the freedoms he served to protect. “I risked my life in combat to protect fundamental American freedoms—that absolutely includes the freedom to practice your religion without fear of persecution,” he said in his statement.

One Bill Moves

The House passed H.R. 1540, the Falun Gong Protection Act, unanimously in May 2025; Ryan was an original cosponsor. However, the bill has sat in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since May 6, 2025, without a vote. A Senate companion, S. 817, introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in March 2025 and cosponsored by Young since last summer has been stuck in the same committee just as long.

A third bill has advanced. The committee voted June 17 to send S. 4009, the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act, to the full Senate with an amendment. Cruz and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) introduced the bill in March, and Young joined as a cosponsor on June 9.

S. 4009 extends sanctions and reporting requirements to all perpetrators of forced organ harvesting in China, not just those who have targeted Falun Gong.

“The Chinese Communist Party operates a brutal, state-sponsored organ harvesting industry that targets people for their faith,” Cruz said when he and Merkley introduced the bill in March. After the committee vote, Cruz said the bill had passed unanimously and urged the Senate to “swiftly pass” it.

Merkley said in the introduction announcement that China’s “campaign of repression and human rights abuses continue to have horrific consequences, including reports of forced organ harvesting from vulnerable groups across the PRC,” using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

All three bills would hold the CCP account by directing the president to sanction—through asset freezes, transaction bans, and visa revocation—foreign nationals found to have knowingly facilitated forced organ harvesting in China, and by requiring the State Department to report on China’s organ-transplant system.

CCP’s Reach Extends to US

Young’s warning about intimidation on U.S. soil echoes concerns raised by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The commission said in 2025 that Chinese authorities have targeted religious communities in the diaspora—including Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Protestant Christians, and others. It listed tactics that include surveillance, harassment, coerced return to China, and threats against family members still in the country.

The China Tribunal, an independent London-based forum chaired by Geoffrey Nice, concluded in June 2019 that forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China had been committed for years “on a significant scale,” and found that Falun Gong practitioners had been the primary source of organs.

The S. 4009 bill has no scheduled floor date.