Washington, DC – Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Lois Frankel (FL-22), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs, released a statement following President Trump’s Executive Order dismantling the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the parent agency supporting the independent work of the Voice of America (VOA), the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), Radio Free Asia (RFA), Radio Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the Middle East Broadcast Network (MBN), the Open Technology Fund (OTF), and the Frontline Media Fund. 

“President Trump’s Executive Order to dismantle USAGM will cause lasting damage to U.S. efforts to counter propaganda around the world and provide audiences in heavily censored countries with trusted, independent information. In the wake of his order, RFE/RL, RFA, and other USAGM-supported entities are seeing their grants terminated and their critical work placed in immediate jeopardy. 

“Do not be fooled—what the White House bills as a continuing effort to simply reduce the federal bureaucracy is in fact undermining the United States’ national security. USAGM’s broadcasting entities and grantees have been instrumental—and cost-effective—in combatting disinformation that undercuts the United States around the world and providing insight into the reality on the ground in China, Iran, Russia, and other closed countries.  

“For example, RFA’s pivotal reporting on the situation in Xinjiang helped form the public record of abuses that led the first Trump Administration to declare that the Chinese Communist Party had committed genocide against its own people. Recent reports that DOGE froze payments to RFA had already raised the risk of largescale furloughs that would significantly impact our ability to counter China’s malign influence across the region. 

“Similarly, RFE/RL, building on decades of experience throughout the Cold War, has been a trusted voice for relaying information on Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine to affected audiences. The Middle East Broadcast Network works to counter Iran’s disinformation campaigns by reporting throughout information-starved markets in the Middle East. And the Voice of America, with an audience of more than 350 million people around the world, ensures fact-based reporting in media-limited environments, including across Africa and the Western Hemisphere, where Chinese and other foreign propaganda would otherwise fill the gap. 

“This Executive Order is just the latest assault by President Trump on USAGM and the work it supports, and part of his broader, DOGE-led effort to break government first and ask questions later. In his first term, President Trump appointed a USAGM CEO who government watchdogs found had mismanaged the agency and undermined the editorial independence of the entities it supports, in an attempt to transform it into the very propaganda machine the agency aims to combat abroad. The Trump administration must restore and implement Congressionally appropriated funds for USAGM and its entities, reverse any efforts to slash their workforces, and respect the statutory editorial firewall and journalistic independence of USAGM-supported broadcasters and grantees.  

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