House Resolution 343 was marked up on March 16, 2016

'H. Res. 343 was agreed to, as amended, by voice vote. By unanimous consent, the measure, as amended, was ordered favorably reported and the Chair was authorized to seek House consideration of the measure under suspension of the rules.'

H. Res. 343, Expressing concern regarding persistent and credible reports of systematic, state-sanctioned organ harvesting from non-consenting prisoners of conscience in the People’s Republic of China, including from large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners and members of other religious and ethnic minority groups..

http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/markup/markup-h-res-343-and-hr-4678

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, California 48th District

"Thank you Mr. Chairman and thank the authors of the bill as well for bringing up this issue and I've been very engaged in this issue for a number of years. And we've had numerous testimony, given numerous hearings and testimony provided us, so unless we are intentionally turning our heads away, it is clear that this massive violation of human rights is taking place in China. And we have unfortunately as a people turned our heads away in order not to see this evil. And this resolution will make sure that we put everybody on notice that this is not going to be ignored anymore, and that the American people are going to be informed that in fact we have developed a trading relationship with the world's worst human rights abuser. And let me put that very clearly: more people — their human rights are violated in China than anywhere else in the world. And nowhere is that more symbolic than we have the Falun Gong, which is a group of people who are joined together and united by a philosophy that's based on peace and justice and truth, and they believe in yoga and meditation. They are a threat to no one, and yet they are being slaughtered in the secret jail cells throughout China and what comes out of it, out of those jail cells, organs that are sent to various places in the world. And let me note this: we need to be committed to not only just stopping this practice but we need to make sure that people who are on the receiving end of these organs — that we deal with that as well because I believe that these organs are being sold in the United States. And that it is wrong for us to close our eyes to that — permitting our doctors to buy a kidney from some prisoner in China who happens to be a Falun Gong member. It's wrong for us to permit a doctor here to transplant that organ because that's us participating in a crime, in a horrific crime that shouldn't be excused. So let us note that in China, as in Cuba as we just mentioned, there are no newspapers to expose this. There are no rallies that people are permitted to have and no opposition parties that can bring up this issue and say this isn't the policy we should have. The only hope for a change in China is if we here make tough stands on these moral issues. And in that degree there are people — our best allies in trying to bring change are the people of China themselves. And by passing resolutions like this ,we are proclaiming to the good people of China that we are on their side and that we too would condemn this type of horrific activity that does not reflect the moral standards of the people of China, of the people of the United States, or decent people anywhere in the world. So thank you very much Mr. Chairman for bringing this up. Thank you to the authors of the bill. Of course I will be supporting this.”

Congressman Brad Sherman, California 30th District

"It is time for the congress to pass a strong incredible resolution condemning China for its oppression of various religions but especially Falun Gong; to condemn China for wrongful executions, and to condemn China for harvesting organs without the permission of the executed prisoner — not that that prisoner would be in that free of position to decide for themselves. Of those, the organ harvesting is by far the most inflammatory, but frankly I think less significant than the other two. When you arrest thousands of people for their religious beliefs, when you execute people wrongfully, to me that is perhaps a less gruesome but a greater crime. I want to thank the Chairman, our prior Chairman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Matt Salmon who serves as Chair of the Asia subcommittee, for working with me to I think improve this resolution to keep it very strong and to make sure that it was the strongest and most credible resolution that we could pass. There are those who say not only does China engage in wrongful executions and organ harvesting, but that nearly one hundred thousand people have been wrongfully executed. I believe the figure that is being used is 70,000, and that particular figure has not been established convincingly to the human rights organizations that I have the greatest respect for both nationally and internationally. And so if we were to cite that particular number without having some substantial evidence behind it, I think it would weaken the resolution. That is why in subcommittee, Matt Salmon and I worked to improve this resolution to make sure it's strong, to make sure it cannot be attacked because it's got one number in it that cannot be proven. Now the fact that it cannot be proven to be true or even established by a very high level of credibility to be true, does not mean that it's not true. It simply means that China's a closed society as Mr. Rohrabacher points out, and that the evidence is simply not available to us. So a resolution that focuses on the wrongful executions, on the oppression of those who are people of faith, and on the fact that in addition to wrongful executions there can be wrongful organ harvesting, I think is the most credible and strongest resolution we could pass.”