Senate Committee on Religious Freedom De-funded

In the staring contest between the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), the Senate blinked first.

USCIRF Commissioner Nina Shea said in an e-mail to The Christian Post that the Committee voted 70-30 last night to keep her organization alive until Dec. 16. The decision comes after two months of scrambling by USCIRF to secure stable funding for its mission of protecting religious freedom overseas. The group's governing mandate originally expired in September, only to be renewed in an overall federal budget resolution that expired today.

Founded in 1998, USCIRF has become the American government's most prominent agency concerning religious freedom abroad. Ryan Morgan, an advocacy officer for International Christian Concern (ICC), said the organization advises the president, Congress and the State Department on how they should stop religious persecution. It's also vital, he said, to the work of similar groups like his own.