WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has passed and sent the Senate legislation to upgrade international religious freedom as an element of U.S. foreign policy.
The Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act updates the 1998 law sponsored by its namesake, which names and can apply sanctions to countries where severe persecution takes place.
The new legislation also would target individual abusers and non-state persecutors like the Islamic State group and Boko Haram.
Virginia Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, who succeeded Wolf, says the bill will provide “stronger and more flexible political responses to the disturbing and growing denial of basic religious freedoms around the world.”
