A month ago, Elon Musk, the unelected billionaire “special government employee” who isn’t running the not-actually-a-department Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) behind a sweeping effort to downsize the U.S. government, tweeted “Yes, shut them down” on X, a platform he owns, in regard to RFE/RL and Voice of America (VOA). On March 14, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,” ordering the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), among other small independent agencies, to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”
USAGM oversees all U.S. government-supported international broadcasting.
RFE/RL is a private nonprofit that broadcasts news in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. It characterizes its mission as providing “uncensored, trusted news to audiences in 23 countries where a free press is under threat.”
Soon after the order was made public on Friday, March 14, RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said that they had been informed that their federal grant agreement, which funds RFE/RL’s operations, had been terminated.
“The cancellation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s grant agreement would be a massive gift to America’s enemies,” Capus said in a statement. “The Iranian Ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years. Handing our adversaries a win would make them stronger and America weaker.
“We’ve benefitted from strong bipartisan support throughout RFE/RL’s storied history. Without us, the nearly 50 million people in closed societies who depend on us for accurate news and information each week won’t have access to the truth about America and the world.”
RFE/RL’s Board Chair Lisa Curtis told The Diplomat, “RFE/RL has been a critical organization for over 75 years in bringing press freedom and shining the light of liberty and truth in societies that are denied a free press and access to uncensored information. Undercutting RFE/RL at this moment in history when democracy is clearly under threat in many parts of the world would be a mistake of tremendous proportions.”
Curtis provided The Diplomat an information sheet expanding on a statement she made on LinkedIn confirming the letter received by RFE/RL’s leadership from Kari Lake, recently appointed a special adviser to the USAGM, “claiming to cancel RFE/RL’s Congressionally appropriated funding.”
Curtis served as a deputy assistant to the president and National Security Council senior director for South and Central Asia from 2017 to 2021 during the first Trump administration.
In her statement, Curtis laid out four reasons “it’s illegal for USAGM to deny appropriated funds to RFE/RL” and noted that their pro bono legal team was prepared to “take all necessary steps to ensure that RFE/RL continues its Congressionally authorized mission.”
Curtis’ statement noted that it is illegal for USAGM to deny appropriated funds to RFE/RL as it violates not only the organization’s governing statute, but Congressional appropriations laws as well as several clauses in the U.S. Constitution.
The information sheet goes into greater detail, noting that the statute governing grants to RFE/RL states that money “shall be available to make annual grants” to RFE/RL and that “USAGM is violating the statute by refusing to comply with the unambiguous duty to make annual grants to RFE/RL.”
In regard to Congressional appropriations laws, the information sheet noted that in its Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations, Congress appropriated funds for USAGM specifically intended for RFE/RL. “The Continuing Resolution extended that level of funding through the end of FY25,” the information sheet noted.
In reference to the U.S. Constitution, RFE/RL notes that the law does not give the president discretion to ignore Congressional appropriations decisions, citing a 2013 decision by then-D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh – now sitting on the Supreme Court – in which he wrote that the Executive Branch “does not have unilateral authority to refuse to spend the funds” appropriated by Congress.
“Finally the grant termination itself is unlawful,” Curtis said on LinkedIn, with the information sheet expanding on that point to note that the “sole basis for USAGM purporting to terminate RFE/RL’s grant was that the grant ‘no longer effectuates agency priorities.’”
“But that is not a lawful basis on which to terminate RFE/RL’s grant,” the information sheet stated. The grant award stipulates that the grant can only be terminated if RFE/RL “fails to comply with any material term of this Grant.”
RFE/RL is not an executive agency. Like other entities targeted by the Trump administration, such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), even a layman’s understanding of the separation of powers would suggest it’s outside the scope of the executive branch to cancel funding in such a manner.
The NED filed a lawsuit on March 5 and on March 10 it regained access to funds that had been frozen since late January. This does not preclude the possibility of a future Congress opting not to appropriate funds.
The March 14 executive order mandated the heads of the affected entities – which also include the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, among others – to submit a report to the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) “confirming compliances” and explaining what components “are statutorily required and to what extent.”
On March 15, USAGM issued a statement from Lake – notably, she’s not the agency’s CEO – confirming her intent to implement the effort to demolish USAGM and its grantees. She cited “egregious findings” of “waste, fraud, and abuse,” such as “Massive national security violations, including spies and terrorist sympathizers and/or supporters infiltrating the agency.” She offered no evidence for these claims.
Ironically, Lake’s statement claimed USAGM offered “a product that often parrots the talking-points of America’s adversaries.” To the contrary, accusing USAGM – and by proxy VOA and RFE/RL – of conspiring with activists and “radical Leftist advocacy organizations” mirrors the language of anti-U.S. critics the world over.
Amid the uncertainty as to RFE/RL’s future, European officials are contemplating a potential rescue.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky made a statement of support, noting that “When Radio Free Europe first began broadcasting, it was a beacon for those whom totalitarianism had deprived of the truth. Peroutka, Tigrid, and other exiles fought censorship and lies with words. Today, the situation is no different.”
RFE/RL’s headquarters are located in Prague.
“From Belarus to Iran, from Russia to Afghanistan, @RFERL and @VOANews remain among the few free sources of information for those living in oppression. Silencing them would not just be a loss for them, but for all of us who believe in democracy,” Lipavsky said in his statement, posted on X.
RFE/RL’s journalists are still working, unlike the U.S.-based staff of VOA, who have been put on administrative leave. Radio Azattyk, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, reported on Monday that Czech officials were circulating a draft statement among their EU colleagues, “expressing serious concern over the situation surrounding RFE/RL’s funding,” noting its importance to “millions of people in regions where free press is absent or limited,” and arguing that it strengthens Europe’s security. Its “possible cessation ‘would be a gift to Europe’s adversaries,’” the draft reportedly states.
Azattyk’s reporting suggests a nascent effort to find alternative funding for RFE/RL, should the United States abandon the mission that has sustained the organization for more than 75 years.