Legislation has been introduced on Capitol Hill requiring President Barack Obama’s administration to give international religious freedom a higher priority.

Congressman Frank Wolf, who authored the 1998 law establishing the office, has proposed an amendment that would give the office’s ambassador-at-large new, direct contact with the Secretary of State as well as greater access to the president’s foreign policy decision-making, reports Stephanie Samuel of the Christian Post.

Under Wolf’s bill, newly confirmed IRF Ambassador-at-Large Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook would be moved from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor into Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s office.

“Ambassador Cook would also be given oversight and management authority of the IRF Office and other religiously oriented positions and programs at the State Department,” reports Samuel. The Christian Post is an internet newsite.

According to a Pew Research study released in December 2009, one-third of all nations severely restrict religious freedom.