8. Media Agencies (USAGM, CPB) · Minor
Put State's Assistant Secretary and Undersecretary in USAGM accountability loop
Printed page 244 8. Media Agencies (USAGM, CPB)
“The State Department’s Assistant Secretary for Global Public Affairs and Undersecretary for Diplomacy and Public Affairs should also be in the accountability loop for agency actions.”
What has happened
- Not started
Neither State official was put in USAGM's accountability loop. The one statutory State-Department consultation that already exists — 22 U.S.C. 6204(4), consultation with the Secretary of State before the addition or deletion of language services — was not honored: the court found that USAGM's Statutory Minimum Memorandum "necessarily put the cart before the horse — effectuating the deletion of language services through the removal of staff before consulting the State Department". Nothing gives the Assistant Secretary for Global Public Affairs or the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy any role in USAGM accountability. Confirmed on 2026-09-03 from the State side: the USAGM organizational chart printed in State's 2025 Comprehensive Annual Report on Public Diplomacy and International Broadcasting (2025-11-25) shows no State Department post anywhere in USAGM's reporting line.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Not started, with a source: the record shows the existing State consultation duty being bypassed, which is the opposite of the ask.
- One search covered the USAGM service and internal-management asks that have no instrument on a source we accept as Evidence: #615, #617, #619, #620, #624, #626, #627, #630, #632 and #633.
- Action
- other
- Object
- State Department Assistant Secretary for Global Public Affairs and Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy
- ID
- 632