Uyghur-American activists have welcomed the 2025 U.S. defense spending bill’s inclusion of key laws aimed at the repression of Uyghurs in China, including one that requires the federal government to monitor rights abuses in Xinjiang and sanction implicated Chinese officials. The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on Dec. 18 and signed by President Joe Biden on Dec. 22. It authorizes $895 billion in defense spending for 2025 and contains a plethora of other bills, with the final document standing at 1,813 pages.
Among those were the bipartisan Uyghur Human Rights Policy Reauthorization Act of 2024, which was co-sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, and renews the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act.