Sanctioning Supporters of Slave Labor Act (H.R.7998)

The Sanctioning Supporters of Slave Labor Act (H.R.7998) was introduced in the House of Representatives on June 9, 2022 by Representative Jim Banks (R) along with 28 original cosponsors. It amends the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 (S.3744), which was enacted into law on June 17, 2020.

The bill applies “secondary sanctions” to any foreign person who has financial transactions with Chinese officials who are under Global Magnitsky human rights sanctions, or has any financial transactions related to torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and other flagrant human rights violations. The bill amends Section 6 of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act to additionally:

• Require the President, in an annual report to Congress, to identify each foreign person who has provided material support to PRC officials responsible for human rights abuses in the Uyghur Region.

• Require the President, in the same to report, to also identify each foreign person who has conducted any financial transaction with regard to:

(A) Torture.

(B) Cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

(C) Prolonged detention without charges and trial.

(D) Causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction and clandestine detention of those persons.

(E) Other flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, or the security of persons.

• Require the President to impose Magnitsky sanctions on each of these identified foreign persons.