WASHINGTON, D.C. — A comprehensive new report published by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) on June 3, 2026, paints a sobering picture of the state of America’s international religious freedom (IRF) policy — flagging missing statutory reports, a leadership vacuum at the State Department, and deep cuts to foreign aid programs that advocates say are leaving persecuted religious minorities without a crucial lifeline.

The United States has for nearly three decades built a sophisticated legal and diplomatic architecture to champion religious freedom worldwide — an architecture that now shows worrying cracks under the weight of bureaucratic delays, contested appointments, and a sweeping foreign assistance freeze.

The Legal Foundation: IRFA at 28 Years

The bedrock of U.S. international religious freedom policy is the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA; P.L. 105-292), a landmark law that embedded IRF as a formal foreign policy priority. IRFA’s pillars include: the Office of International Religious Freedom within the State Department headed by an Ambassador at Large (AAL); a mandatory annual country-by-country report; presidential designation of “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPCs); and the creation of the independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

In 2016, Congress strengthened IRFA through the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act (P.L. 114-281), which added a “Special Watch List” for severe but sub-threshold violators and required the designation of non-state “Entities of Particular Concern” (EPCs) — acknowledging that groups like ISIS and the Taliban could commit atrocities as grave as any government.

A Vacant Chair and a Leadership Vacuum

The State Department’s top religious freedom post — the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom — currently sits empty, a gap that advocates warn undermines American credibility on the world stage. President Trump’s nominee for the role, Mark Walker, was never confirmed by the Senate before the end of the 119th Congress’s first session, causing his nomination to be returned to the White House under Senate rules.

Walker subsequently served in an informal capacity as Principal Advisor for Global Religious Freedom, but even that role ended when he departed the State Department in April 2026. As of the CRS report’s publication, the Trump Administration has not announced a new nominee for the position.

On a related note, Yehuda Kaploun — Trump’s nominee to serve as the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism — was confirmed by the Senate in December 2025, filling a separate but related portfolio.

A significant structural change has also reshaped the IRF institutional landscape: under its 2025 reorganization, the State Department eliminated the position of Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights — the senior official to whom both the IRF Office and the Special Envoy’s office had reported since 2019. Both offices have been realigned under the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL).

Two Missing Reports — and a Statute Being Ignored

Among the most striking findings in the CRS brief: the State Department is now two annual religious freedom reports behind schedule — a statutory delinquency with real-world consequences for persecuted communities abroad.

The annual IRF Report, required by law to be submitted to Congress around May 1 each year, is the U.S. government’s official global audit of religious freedom conditions and a primary tool for triggering CPC designations and sanctions. The last published report — covering calendar year 2023 — was submitted to Congress on June 26, 2024. The report covering calendar year 2024 was due around May 1, 2025, and has not been released. The report covering calendar year 2025 was due around May 1, 2026, and also has not been released.

Without these reports, the cascading statutory obligations they trigger — CPC reviews, sanctions determinations, Special Watch List updates — cannot be formally initiated. The CRS notes that the Trump Administration did not issue new designations connected to the overdue 2024 report, which had been submitted during the final months of the Biden Administration.

Countries of Particular Concern: Last Updated December 2023

The official list of Countries of Particular Concern — designating the world’s worst religious freedom violators — was last comprehensively updated in December 2023 under the Biden Administration. The Trump Administration’s only new CPC action to date was President Trump’s October 31, 2025 designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern — without announcing any accompanying sanctions or actions.

Critically, the CRS notes that while the December 2023 CPC designations technically remain in effect, the IRFA-prescribed actions associated with them expired in December 2025 — leaving the enforcement mechanisms attached to those designations in legal limbo.

Source: 89 Federal Register 3980. Note: Actions associated with December 2023 designations expired December 2025 per CRS analysis.

Foreign Aid Freeze: IRF Programs Gutted

In early 2025, the Trump Administration launched a sweeping foreign aid review that paused nearly all U.S. foreign assistance programs — including those specifically designed to advance international religious freedom. The consequences, according to USCIRF, have been severe: the oversight commission reported that “a significant portion of programs that utilized funds directed by Congress to promote IRF” were ultimately terminated.

This matters because IRFA-mandated IRF programs are a primary vehicle through which the U.S. government translates its diplomatic commitments into tangible support for persecuted communities — funding civil society organizations, legal aid for religious minorities, documentation of abuses, and diplomatic training for foreign governments.

In a partial counterweight, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in December 2025 a new visa restriction policy targeting individuals involved in religious freedom violations — an executive tool that does not require congressional appropriations and signals continued intent, if not funding, behind IRF objectives.

USCIRF Urges Expansion of the CPC List

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, in its annual report released in March 2026 covering conditions during calendar year 2025, issued recommendations that go significantly beyond current official U.S. designations. USCIRF called on the State Department to add five additional countries to the CPC list: Afghanistan, India, Libya, Syria, and Vietnam — in addition to those already on the list.

The commission also recommended additional Special Watch List and EPC designations, reflecting its assessment that conditions for religious minorities have deteriorated in multiple regions not yet captured by formal State Department action.

Separately, the CRS brief flags that USCIRF’s own congressional authorization expires in September 2026, raising the possibility that the independent oversight commission could lapse entirely. Legislation pending in the 119th Congress — H.R. 1744 and S. 3984 — would reauthorize USCIRF through September 2028. As of publication, neither bill has been enacted.

What This Means for Faith Communities Worldwide

The cumulative picture painted by the CRS brief — two overdue reports, a vacant Ambassador post, gutted foreign assistance, and an oversight commission facing expiry — represents a significant weakening of the institutional scaffolding that advocates and persecuted communities have depended on for decades.

Critics argue that delays in CPC designations and report releases leave the United States without updated leverage in diplomatic negotiations, and that the termination of IRF foreign aid programs eliminates direct support to civil society groups operating in some of the most dangerous religious environments on earth.

Defenders of the current trajectory note that the Administration has taken unilateral actions — including the Nigeria CPC designation and the new visa restriction policy — that signal continued commitment to the IRF mandate, even if congressional-directed programs have been scaled back.

For religious freedom advocates — including the independent and bipartisan USCIRF — the central concern is institutional: without the full machinery of IRFA operating as intended, the United States loses a unique and powerful diplomatic instrument, one that has historically offered a lifeline to believers across the globe facing persecution for their faith.

Faith & Freedom News will continue to monitor developments in U.S. international religious freedom policy. Read the full Congressional Research Service brief at congress.gov/crs-product/IF10803.