Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) says it has run out of funds due to Donald Trump’s govt order
The US state-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) started furloughing workers at its Prague headquarters on Tuesday, citing the dearth of congressional grants for April.
RFE/RL was initially created to unfold pro-Western propaganda within the Soviet bloc in the course of the Chilly Battle. The community was initially funded by the CIA and at the moment receives grants from the US Congress.
On March 14, President Donald Trump signed an govt order drastically decreasing the US Company for International Media (USAGM), which oversees RFE/RL and the Voice of America. On March 25, a DC choose briefly blocked the USAGM from defunding RFE/RL.
The information group mentioned on Tuesday that, regardless of the ruling, it has not acquired new cash from the federal government.
“Though USAGM rescinded its letter terminating RFE/RL’s grant settlement on March 26, RFE/RL has not acquired any of its congressionally appropriated funds since that date – and USAGM has not accepted RFE/RL’s monetary plan for April,” the information outlet wrote on its web site.
RFE/RL added that it has requested the choose to grant a brief restraining order guaranteeing its funding in April and an injunction to make sure it’s going to have the cash “for the rest of the present fiscal 12 months.”
“Our workers and their households are actually paying the worth as RFE/RL continues to attend for USAGM to supply our congressionally appropriated funds,” RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus mentioned in an announcement.
The White Home has argued that the defunding of RFE/RL was a part of Trump’s marketing campaign to chop public spending and eradicate “pointless” paperwork.
Tech billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk, who leads the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), has known as for RFE/RL to be “shut down.” “No one listens to them anymore,” Musk wrote on X in February.
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