3.0.0 2878 2023-01-11T13:33:06Z 2023-01-11T13:33:06Z Senate S 2016-04-28 114 ssfr00 Foreign Relations Committee Senate Standing Referred to 2016-04-28T16:55:04Z Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act 114 1150 HR 2016-12-16 Became Public Law No: 114-281. Related bill CRS 2016-04-28 ssfr00 Foreign Relations Committee Senate Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. IntroReferral 2016-04-28 Introduced in Senate IntroReferral 10000 9 Library of Congress R000595 Sen. Rubio, Marco [R-FL] Marco Rubio R FL N C001056 Sen. Cornyn, John [R-TX] John Cornyn R TX 2016-04-28 True B000575 Sen. Blunt, Roy [R-MO] Roy Blunt R MO 2016-04-28 True B001236 Sen. Boozman, John [R-AR] John Boozman R AR 2016-06-28 False C000542 Sen. Coats, Daniel [R-IN] DANIEL COATS R IN RAY 2016-07-14 False S001197 Sen. Sasse, Ben [R-NE] Ben Sasse R NE 2016-12-01 False L000575 Sen. Lankford, James [R-OK] James Lankford R OK 2016-12-07 False International Affairs Congressional oversight Department of State Detention of persons Diplomacy, foreign officials, Americans abroad Employment discrimination and employee rights Executive Office of the President Executive agency funding and structure Federal officials Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management Government information and archives Government trust funds Higher education Human rights Intelligence activities, surveillance, classified information International law and treaties Religion Sanctions School administration Social work, volunteer service, charitable organizations Teaching, teachers, curricula Terrorism U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Violent crime International Affairs 00 2016-04-28 Introduced in Senate 2016-09-27T21:14:18Z Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act

This bill amends the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) to include among the responsibilities of the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom the integration of international religious freedom policies and strategies into U.S. foreign policy.

The bill states that the Department of State should consider elevating the Office of International Religious Freedom and the position of the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom to the Office of the Secretary of State.

The executive summary to the annual religious freedom report shall include a special watch list of countries that engage in or tolerate severe violations of religious freedom but do not meet the criteria for designation as country of particular concern for religious freedom.

The bill expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) there should be within the National Security Council's staff a Special Adviser to the President on International Religious Freedom, (2) the State Department should work with Congress to address severe violations of religious freedom by non-state actors, (3) ongoing and persistent waivers of specified presidential actions against countries of particular concern for religious freedom do not fulfill the IRFA's purpose, (4) the State Department should make specified assistance available to promote international religious freedom, (5) U.S. institutions of higher education operating campuses outside the United States or establishing educational entities with foreign governments should seek to uphold the right of freedom of religion, and (6) the President's annual national security strategy should promote international religious freedom.

The Foreign Service Act of 1980 is amended to direct the State Department to develop a curriculum for, and the Director of the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center to begin, mandatory training on religious freedom for all Foreign Service officers.

The IRFA is amended to require the Commission on International Religious Freedom to compile and make publicly available updated lists of persons it determines are imprisoned, disappeared, placed under house arrest, tortured, or subject to forced renunciations of faith for their religious activity or religious freedom advocacy by a foreign government or a non-state actor that the commission recommends for designation as a country or entity of particular concern for religions freedom.

The President shall: (1) identify and designate a non-state actor that has engaged in particularly severe violations of religious freedom as an entity of particular concern for religious freedom; and (2) take appropriate actions to address severe violations of religious freedom, including suspension of assistance.

The President shall designate any country that appears on the special watch list in more than two consecutive annual reports on international religious freedom as a country of particular concern for religious freedom.

The State Department shall establish a list of foreign individuals who are sanctioned for ordering or otherwise directing particularly severe violations of freedom religion.

]]> Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act Display Title Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act Official Title as Introduced A bill to amend the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to improve the ability of the United States to advance religious freedom globally through enhanced diplomacy, training, counterterrorism, and foreign assistance efforts, and through stronger and more flexible political responses to religious freedom violations and violent extremism worldwide, and for other purposes. Introduced in Senate IS Short Titles as Introduced Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act Introduced in Senate 2016-04-28T04:00:00Z https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-114s2878is/xml/BILLS-114s2878is.xml 2016-04-28 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain. Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress This file contains bill summaries and statuses for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.