8. Media Agencies (USAGM, CPB) · Major · Needs Congress
Defund and disestablish USAGM if it is not reformed
Printed page 245 8. Media Agencies (USAGM, CPB)
“If the de facto aim of the agency simply remains to compete in foreign markets using anti-U.S. talking points that parrot America’s adversaries’ propaganda, then this represents an unacceptable burden to the U.S. taxpayer and a negative return on investment. In that case, the USAGM should be defunded and disestablished.”
What has happened
- Blocked
Unchanged, and firmer. The district court denied the government's motion for reconsideration of the ruling that Kari Lake exercised the CEO's authorities unlawfully, so the finding that her actions — including the reduction-in-force notices — have no force or effect stands. Read alongside the D.C. Circuit's 2026-03-31 order, whose stay reached only the return-to-work clause and no part of the merits, the position on 2026-09-03 is that USAGM exists, is funded by P.L. 119-75, and is operating under a live district-court judgment; the case remains active, with status reports every two weeks through 2026-08-27 and a motion hearing set for 2026-09-04.
- Blocked
The D.C. Circuit stayed the March 17 orders only 'to the extent that they require that all employees placed on administrative leave ... shall return to work', consolidated the appeals (Nos. 26-5086, 26-5087) and asked the parties to address whether the 2025 appeals are moot. The rest of the judgment stands; USAGM exists, funded, under court supervision.
- Blocked
On partial summary judgment the court held that Kari Lake's service as de facto acting CEO violated the Appointments Clause and the Vacancies Act (2026-03-07), so her actions — including the 2025-08-29 reduction-in-force notices to 532 employees — have no force or effect, and that the March 2025 shutdown of USAGM and VOA was arbitrary and capricious and unlawfully withheld statutorily required broadcasting; it ordered employees on leave since March 2025 back to work.
- Blocked
Judge Lamberth (D.D.C.) preliminarily enjoined the dismantling: ordered USAGM employees and contractors restored to their pre-March-14 status, FY2025 grants to RFA and MBN restored, and VOA programming restored. The D.C. Circuit stayed the employee and grant provisions on 2025-05-03; sitting en banc on 2025-05-28 it vacated the stay as to the RFA and MBN grants but left the employee-restoration stay in place. The VOA-programming provision was never stayed.
- Widakuswara v. Lake, No. 1:25-cv-1015 (D.D.C.), memorandum opinion granting preliminary injunction in part
- Widakuswara v. Lake, Nos. 25-5144 et al. (D.C. Cir.), order granting stay pending appeal of provisions (1) and (2)
- Widakuswara v. Lake, Nos. 25-5144 et al. (D.C. Cir. en banc), order vacating the stay as to Nos. 25-5150 and 25-5151
- Attempted
Executive Order 14238 named USAGM among seven entities to be cut to the statutory minimum. On 2025-03-15 USAGM placed most of its and VOA's staff on administrative leave, moved to terminate grants to RFE/RL, RFA, MBN and OTF, and said it would 'shed everything that is not statutorily required'.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Requires Congress: no law defunds or disestablishes USAGM. The Rescissions Act of 2025 (P.L. 119-28, among the public laws we keep) contains no USAGM provision. The FY2026 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 119-75, 2026-02-03) goes the other way: read at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-119publ75/html/PLAW-119publ75.htm, it funds USAGM as a State Department “related agency” with $643,000,000 for international broadcasting operations and $9,700,000 for broadcasting capital improvements in FY2026, with reporting provisos running to the USAGM Chief Executive Officer. Congress has neither defunded nor disestablished the agency; see #628, where the same provisions are the Evidence for a not started event.
- Checked 2026-09-03: a CourtListener docket here is no longer a lead. The free court filings behind these dockets can be downloaded from CourtListener, and the D.C. Circuit’s per curiam order of 2026-03-31 and the district court’s order of 2026-05-14 were both read in full there. The list below is kept for its docket numbers.
- Dockets: D.D.C. 1:25-cv-01015 Widakuswara v. Lake (https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69846584/widakuswara-v-lake/), 1:25-cv-00887 Abramowitz v. Lake (https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69791808/abramowitz-v-lake/), 1:25-cv-00840 Open Technology Fund v. Lake, 1:25-cv-00907 Radio Free Asia v. United States, 1:25-cv-00966 MBN v. United States, 1:26-cv-00980 Newhouse v. USAGM (filed 2026-03-23, the “firewall” suit); D.C. Cir. 25-5144/25-5145 (merits briefs filed; still pending at the 2026-03-31 order), 26-5086/26-5087 (2026 appeals).
- Other opinions among the court records we keep, not used as Evidence: Widakuswara 2025-07-30 order to show cause on compliance with the VOA-programming injunction (ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov …2025cv1015-130, on file); Abramowitz v. Lake 2025-08-28 (…2025cv0887-76, a scanned PDF with no text layer — not read); Open Technology Fund v. Lake 2025-06-20 and RFE/RL v. Lake 2025-03-25/04-29/07-18 (not read).
- The 2025-08-29 RIF of 532 employees is documented inside the 2026-03-07 opinion (Lake signed the notices; the RIF is “currently suspended due to court order”). USAGM issued no press release for it.
- The Status stays blocked because a court order in force (the unstayed parts of the 2025-04-22 injunction and the 2026-03-17 judgment) prevents the shutdown; if the D.C. Circuit vacates on the merits, it goes back to attempted.
- Action
- abolish
- Object
- U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM)
- ID
- 637