A bill intended to strengthen America's voice in the Middle East and Central Asia on the subject of religious freedoms for minority believers passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last December but languishes under two holds placed by Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
Lee's hold — which an aide said was "just to signal that you’d like to have a discussion about it with the sponsor of the bill before it moves to the next step by unanimous consent" — could be lifted after a conversation with sponsor, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., something Lee spokesman Brian Phillips said the Utah lawmaker is "prepared" to do.
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