Troubles Between Congress and Religious Freedom

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is a small government agency that has done good work in the past and may do good work in the future — if it’s not transformed into a politicized bureaucracy.

To call attention to this imminent danger, Kristina Arriaga, a USCIRF commissioner since 2016, has resigned, explaining her reasons in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. She cited a proposed reauthorization and “reform” bill introduced in the Senate in September that would shift USCIRF’s “stated purpose and burden commissioners with new bureaucratic hurdles.”