FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL— House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise have nominated a new commissioner to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Gene Mills, a religious leader and president of the Louisiana Family Forum, will serve alongside eight others to ensure religious freedoms are protected around the world.
“I am excited to nominate Gene Mills as the newest commissioner for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom,” Johnson told the Daily Signal. “Gene has been a steady voice supporting religious freedom in the state of Louisiana and in our country for more than a quarter century.”
The Louisiana Family Forum, which Mills heads, is a nonprofit organization founded in 1998 to advance life, liberty, and limited government.
“I’ve known Gene Mills for 30 years, and his deep faith will strengthen the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in its mission to defend religious freedom at home and around the world,” Scalise told the Daily Signal.
The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 codified the U.S. government’s role in promoting religious freedom around the world. The law created the commission to monitor and respond to violations of religious freedom globally, and to make policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of state, and Congress.
“The United States has a long history of supporting religious freedom because this principle forms the bedrock for so many other basic human freedoms we enjoy today, and I am confident that the important work of this commission will be further strengthened by Gene’s participation,” Johnson continued.
“Our Founding Fathers believed so strongly in religious liberty that they enshrined it in the Constitution, and that is why America has always stood tall as a beacon for people of faith around the world,” Scalise concluded.
The commission works with independent human rights groups, nongovernmental organizations, religious communities, and the State Department to identify countries of particular concern where religious freedoms are being violated.
There are currently 18 countries listed as countries of particular concern, including China, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, India, Cuba, and Vietnam. There are 11 countries on a special watch list, including Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, and Turkey.
