8. Media Agencies (USAGM, CPB) · Notable · Needs Congress
Overhaul USAGM with congressional review to modernize and reduce waste
Printed page 245 8. Media Agencies (USAGM, CPB)
“An overhaul of the agency with review from Congress to modernize, streamline, and reduce waste must be done with congressional support.”
What has happened
- Not started
Requires Congress. No bill overhauling USAGM was introduced, reported or passed: the Corpus of 119th-Congress bills contains three measures touching the subject at all — two Local Radio Freedom Act resolutions and H.R. 5704 to repeal the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act — and none is an agency overhaul. "Agency for Global Media" appears nowhere in the enrolled text of P.L. 119-60 (which carries both the State Department and the Intelligence authorizations for FY2026), and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 re-enacts the existing structure rather than overhauling it. What happened instead was executive: an attempted shutdown under Executive Order 14238, without congressional support, which the courts have held unlawful (#636, #637).
No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Requires-Congress ladder: nothing introduced on this ask, so not started.
- The Quote’s operative words are “with review from Congress” and “must be done with congressional support”, which is exactly what the record shows was absent.
- Action
- other
- Object
- USAGM agency overhaul
- ID
- 635