During today’s markup, the House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously approved legislation authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) to extend and authorize annual appropriations for the State Department’s United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) through fiscal year 2028. If enacted, Smith’s United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Reauthorization Act of 2025 (HR 1744) will reauthorize the Commission, which was created through the International... Read more

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) delivers remarks at AFPI's "Ending Human Trafficking: An America First Priority" roundtable on March 25, 2026. The following are excerpts of remarks delivered by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), author of the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 and four additional anti-human trafficking laws, for the America First Policy Institute (AFPI)'s "Ending Human Trafficking: An America First Priority" roundtable in Washington, D.C. on March 25, 2026: Special thanks... Read more

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) today announced the date of his United States Service Academy Information Night, which will take place on Wednesday, April 22nd from 5:00—6:30 PM at the Ocean County Resource Center (1005 Hooper Ave., Toms River, NJ 08753). “Over the years, I’ve had the honor and privilege of nominating many outstanding young men and women for acceptance into our Nation’s Service Academies,” said Smith. “Many, if not all, of the students I nominated attended one of the Service Academy in... Read more

By Jerry Carino Published March 18, 2026 at 5:15 AM ET Leo Perlmutter was a corporal in the U.S. Marines, fighting in the bloody Tet Offensive in 1968, when a mortar round exploded near his head. “I didn’t even know I had gotten hit,” he said. A Navy corpsman — a medical specialist — noticed his forehead was bleeding. “I said, ‘Eh, it’s just a pimple,” Perlmutter recalled. “He said, ‘That ain’t no pimple. You got some metal in your head.’” Leo Perlmutter during his service in Vietnam. Provided B... Read more

By Nick Mordowanec Published March 16, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT Dr. Gulshan Abbas, 63, a retired physician and ethnic Uyghur, was disappeared by Chinese authorities in September 2018 in China’s western region of Xinjiang, after her sister, Rushan Abbas, publicly spoke out against the Chinese Communist Party’s oppression of Uyghurs. Gulshan’s family was unaware of her whereabouts until December 2020, when it was learned that a secret trial had taken place in March 2019 declaring Gulshan guilty for “ta... Read more

Corporal Leo Perlmutter Fifty-eight years ago, U.S. Marine Corporal Leo Perlmutter did not know what hit him. He was in one of the battles in the Tet Offensive, launched by North Vietnam and the Viet Cong against the U.S. and Vietnamese forces in January of 1968. Enemy mortar rounds were coming in all around, and one struck close to his position. “I didn’t even know I was hit,” Perlmutter said. “A medic came to treat me. I was bleeding from the head from shrapnel.” He qualified for the Purple H... Read more

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, issued the following statement in response to the horrific antisemitic attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan: “My wife, Marie, and I are absolutely appalled by this barbaric act of violence directly targeting American Jews and their fundamental right of freedom of religion. “Antisemitic violence has no place in the United States—or anywhere else on the planet—and we must remain vigila... Read more

By Roger A. Agana Published March 11, 2026 A senior United States congressman has called on Washington to deploy every diplomatic and economic tool available after a landmark federal commission flagged 18 countries as the world’s most severe violators of religious freedom. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its 2026 Annual Report on March 4, documenting violations throughout 2025 and setting out policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State... Read more

“The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)’s 2026 Annual Report is a sobering reminder that millions of people around the world still face imprisonment, violence, and discrimination simply because of their faith,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)—a longtime defender of religious liberty—upon the release of USCIRF’s 21st Annual Report, led by USCIRF Chairwoman Vicky Hartzler. The report evaluates the religious freedom conditions in dozens of countries and makes recommendations ... Read more

The following are excerpts of Co-Chairman Chris Smith’s (R-NJ) opening statement at the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission’s March 5th hearing, entitled “U.S. Presidency of the G20–An Opportunity to Champion Human Rights”: Good afternoon and welcome to everyone joining us today for this important hearing on the U.S. Presidency of the G20. I’d particularly like to recognize and welcome several Romanian parliamentary deputies who are here with us today. As the United States assumes the 2026 Presi... Read more