WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Legislation to reauthorize a U.S. government body monitoring international religious freedom took a procedural step forward in the U.S. House July 10.
The same week in Congress, two lawmakers introduced a joint resolution they said would protect religious foster care providers.
At the end of the week, the presidential race remained a toss-up, a new poll found, despite voters’ concerns about President Joe Biden’s performance in a recent debate.
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reauthorization moves forward
Bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, or USCIRF, was unanimously approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a markup session July 10, clearing its way to consideration by the full House.
A timeline for such a vote was not immediately clear. The legislation was introduced by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., both Catholics.
The bill, which Smith’s office said he authored, would extend the independent and bipartisan government commission — which is set to expire later this year — through September 2026.
“USCIRF is the linchpin program Congress created to promote religious freedom,” Smith said in a statement. “Its high-quality reporting and high-profile commissioners influence the State Department, making its own work more honest and effective.”
USCIRF monitors religious freedom around the globe and makes policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of state and Congress about how to protect religious freedom around the world.
“USCIRF in recent years has been more effective than at any point in its history and is one of the most effective tools we have for defending religious freedom,” Smith said. “Now more than ever its success must continue.”
Companion legislation in the Senate was introduced in February by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ben Cardin, D-Md., as well as other co-sponsors from both parties.
Lawmakers say measure would protect religious foster care providers
Two Republican lawmakers July 10 introduced a joint resolution they said aims to protect religious foster care providers.
Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced a joint resolution to overturn a Biden administration regulation concerning the placement of foster care youth who identify as LGBTQ+.
That regulation requires that “LGBTQI+ children have access to specially designated foster care placements.” In order to be designated for such a placement, a provider “must commit to establishing an environment that supports the child’s LGBTQI+ status or identity,” among other requirements.
When it issued the regulation in April, the Biden administration argued that “LGBTQI+ children are overrepresented in foster care and face significantly higher levels of bullying and harassment in care than other children.” It said the regulation applies to state child welfare agencies “and does not require any provider to become a designated placement,” but rather that such providers must exist within the system.
But Banks and Cotton argued the regulation “effectively deems many religious families as unfit to be parents of LGBTQ-identifying children.”
“Despite a nationwide shortage of foster families, the Biden administration’s rule discards well-established, faith-based care providers as second-class placement services, forcing states to invest time and resources into recruiting so-called gender-affirming providers,” Banks said in a statement. “This is an attack on religious liberty and common sense, and worst of all, it is the children in need of a safe and loving home who will suffer most from this administration’s radical agenda.”
Cotton argued, “Faith based groups lead the effort in Arkansas to provide safe foster homes. The Biden administration’s rule will only hurt children that need a home and the religious organizations that provide this incredibly important work.”
The move comes as some would-be foster parents say they were denied the ability to participate in state fostering programs over their beliefs about sex and gender.
In its 2021 unanimous ruling in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, the Supreme Court sided with Catholic Social Services in its lawsuit against the city of Philadelphia, finding that the city violated the group’s free exercise of religion when it stopped partnering with the agency in its foster-care program since the group would not certify same-sex couples as foster parents on religious grounds.
Banks is currently running for Senate in Indiana.
New poll finds presidential race still ‘up for grabs’
Contrary to other polls finding that former President Donald Trump widened his lead over President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential race after the incumbent delivered a poor debate performance that raised questions about his ability to remain the presumptive Democratic nominee amid concerns over his age, a new poll found that the race is still “up for grabs.”
The poll, which was published the day after Biden — the nation’s second Catholic president — delivered a press conference at the NATO Summit in Washington where he vowed to stay in the race, found that the race “remains statistically tied.”
The new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll, conducted after the debate, found Biden leading Trump 50% to 48% in a head-to-head matchup, within the poll’s margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.
“Despite a series of cataclysmic political events, including Trump’s felony convictions and Biden’s abysmal debate performance, the race for the White House remains essentially unchanged,” Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, said in a statement. “But Biden needs to restore confidence among his party faithful that he can win. And Trump needs to tread very lightly during the Republican convention about Project 2025 and avoid positioning the GOP as too extreme.”
“Project 2025” is a proposed 900-page policy roadmap for a second Trump administration created by the Heritage Foundation think tank that Trump and his campaign have sought to distance themselves from.
Marist College was previously a Catholic school, but is now recognized as a secular institution.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @kgscanlon.
