The Trump administration has notified Congress it plans to close the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
In a letter to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-Idaho), obtained by The Epoch Times, USAGM senior adviser Kari Lake wrote that President Donald Trump ordered in March that “the non-statutory components and functions of [the USAGM] shall be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”
Lake added that “USAGM shall reduce the performance of its ’statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.'”
She said senior agency leadership reviewed and approved the plan. They included General Counsel Royce Min, acting-Chief Executive Officer Victor Morales, and Chief Financial Officer Roman Napoli.
“While we anticipate being above the originally proposed statutory minimum staffing numbers, the plan to effectuate the president’s executive order is still developing,” wrote Lake.
“As we work to adhere to the [executive order], please consider this the required Congressional Notification to satisfy notice for the potential reorganization, consolidations, and/or program terminations.”
The plan would leave the Agency for Global Media with a skeleton staff of 81 positions, down from a staff of 1,700 full-time staffers and contractors.
The Office of Cuba Broadcasting would have 33 positions, Voice of America 11 positions, the Farsi, China, and Afghanistan sections would each have two positions left, and the back office support team would consist of 15 personnel.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for comment.
Lake called it “an enormous benefit to the American taxpayer.”
“We should not be paying outside news organizations to tell us what the news is,” said Lake in March.
“With a nearly billion-dollar budget, we should be producing news ourselves. And if that’s not possible, the American taxpayer should demand to know why.”
USAGM, previously called the Broadcasting Board of Governors, was founded in 1999, but had an agency that preceded it, the U.S. Information Agency.
Founded in 1953, the agency’s goal was to spread pro-democracy news to countries affected by the spread of communism during the Cold War. It was shuttered in 1999.
In addition to VOA and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, USAGM oversees Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Liberty, Radio Free Asia, the Middle Eastern Broadcasting Networks, and the Open Technology Fund.
