WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) recently cosponsored the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act, S. 2878, which would give the State Department additional tools to fight persecution and promote religious freedom across the globe.

“The freedom of religion is the first freedom in the First Amendment to the Constitution,” Blunt said. “This founding principle fundamentally defines who we are as a nation, and we have a unique obligation to help defend that principle wherever it is challenged. Today, that is happening across the globe at the hands of hostile regimes and terrorist groups that are slaughtering Christians and other religious minorities by the thousands. This bill ensures that religious freedom remains a priority in our foreign policy agenda, and enhances the State Department’s ability to combat religious persecution and protect people of faith.”

S. 2878 modernizes and improves the International Religious Freedom Act, which was signed into law in 1998, by:

• Requiring that international religious freedom policies be integrated into national security, and other relevant U.S. foreign policy priorities;

• Creating a Designated Persons List of individuals sanctioned for directing religious freedom abuses;

• Expanding diplomatic training on international religious freedom for all State Department diplomats;

• Creating a “tier system” for International Religious Freedom reports on countries of particular concern and a special watch list - similar to the tier system used in the Trafficking in Persons Report;

• Requiring annual presidential designations and actions directed toward countries with severe religious freedom abuses;

• Requiring the designation of non-state actors, such as ISIS and Boko Haram, as severe violators of international religious freedom; and

• Requiring the Secretary of State to dedicate sufficient resources to the Office on International Religious Freedom, and to a Religious Freedom Defense Fund to support grants for victims of religious freedom violations and for projects to train religious freedom supporters.

In July of 2014, Blunt introduced and Congress passed the bipartisan Near East and South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act, which encouraged President Obama to appoint a special envoy to promote religious freedom in the Middle East. The president subsequently appointed an envoy in September of 2015.