WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations – along with U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) reintroduced the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. This bipartisan bill will ensure that goods made with Uyghur forced labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) do not enter the United States. Earlier this year, the State Department issued a determination that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is committing crimes against humanity and genocide against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

“The Chinese government is committing gross violations of human rights against the Uyghurs and Muslim minorities, and the United States cannot ignore what is happening nor in any way enable the continued abuse of the Uyghurs,” said Sen. Moran. “I’ve repeatedly condemned the abuses carried out by China, and they must be held accountable. This bipartisan legislation would prevent goods created from the forced labor and abuse of the Uyghurs from ending up on American soil, making certain the Chinese Communist Party does not profit from slave labor.”

“As the Chinese Communist Party is committing egregious human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities, including genocide and crimes against humanity, there is no excuse to turn a blind eye. We must instead do everything in our power to stop them,” said Sen. Rubio. “This bill is an important step in that direction. My bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act would ensure that the CCP is not profiting from its abuses by stopping products made with Uyghur forced labor from entering our supply chains.”

“For years, the Chinese government has been committing genocide in Xinjiang, subjecting Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities to torture, imprisonment, forced labor, and pressure to abandon their religious and cultural practices,” said Sen. Merkley. “The fact that some of the products they’ve been forced to produce are ending up on American shelves is disturbing and unacceptable. We must ban the importation of these goods to ensure that we are not complicit in the genocide, and fully commit ourselves to holding the perpetrators accountable for these atrocities.”

This legislation was cosponsored by U.S. Senators James Risch (R-Idaho), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.).

Sen. Moran was also an original cosponsor of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 (P.L. 116-145), the first piece of legislation regarding Uyghurs in the world to be signed into law. Last summer, Sen. Moran called the Chinese government’s actions a genocide, which the State Department confirmed.