Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

8. Media Agencies (USAGM, CPB) · Major

Put Voice of America in the direct chain of command under the NSC

Not started

244 8. Media Agencies (USAGM, CPB)

“VOA was most effective before and during the Cold War when it was under the direct supervision and control of the War and State Departments, respectively. If VOA is not put in the direct chain of command under the NSC, serious consideration should be given to putting VOA under the direct supervision of the Office of Global Public Affairs at the Department of State.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    Congress moved the other way. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 funds the United States Agency for Global Media as a "related agency" of the Department of State with its own line — $643,000,000 for international broadcasting operations plus $9,700,000 for broadcasting capital improvements — and writes the reporting duties to the USAGM Chief Executive Officer and the Appropriations Committees, not to the National Security Council or the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy. Voice of America appears in the Act only as a USAGM broadcast entity whose receipts USAGM may retain. The statutory structure the Quote asks to replace was re-enacted intact. Re-checked to 2026-08-27: no order, statute or reorganization places VOA under the NSC or under State's Office of Global Public Affairs. Re-checked again on 2026-09-03 against State's own record: the USAGM organizational chart printed in the 2025 Comprehensive Annual Report on Public Diplomacy and International Broadcasting (2025-11-25) shows USAGM standing alone — the International Broadcasting Advisory Board, a CEO, a Deputy CEO, Federal Networks and Non-Federal Networks and Grantees — with no National Security Council line anywhere on it.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • Nothing places VOA under the NSC or the State Department’s public-affairs office. VOA was instead silenced (staff on leave from 2025-03-15) and run by USAGM Senior Adviser Kari Lake, whose exercise of the CEO’s powers the court found unlawful — all tracked under #637. A 2026-03-23 suit by VOA journalists (Newhouse v. USAGM, D.D.C. 1:26-cv-00980) alleges the administration breached VOA’s statutory editorial firewall (NPR, 2026-03-23, https://www.npr.org/2026/03/23/nx-s1-5756465/voice-of-america-staffers-sue-alleging-kari-lake-put-on-propaganda — seen by title only): direct political control is alleged, but not a chain of command under the NSC.
  • The State Department leads (Deputy Secretary Rigas as acting CEO, Under Secretary Rogers nominated CEO, 2026) are recorded under #636; they concern USAGM’s head, not VOA’s chain of command, and rest on reporting outside the sources we accept.
  • No statute moves VOA either. “Voice of America”, “United States Agency for Global Media” and “International Broadcasting” appear nowhere in P.L. 119-60 (FY2026 NDAA, whose Division E is the State Department Authorization Act for FY2026 and Division F the Intelligence Authorization Act) — read in full at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-119publ60/html/PLAW-119publ60.htm. Federal Register full-text search for “Voice of America” since 2025-01-20 returns one document, an unrelated SES-positions notice (2025-05-20).
  • Searched: presidential documents, White House presidential actions, Federal Register notices and bills in Congress for “voice of america”; the 2025-01-20 NSC organization memorandum title (no broadcasting content); USAGM press releases 2025; a web search for “Voice of America USAGM State Department transfer 2026”; the Federal Register for “Voice of America” since 2025-01-20; enrolled texts of P.L. 119-60 and P.L. 119-75.
Action
transfer
Object
Voice of America chain of command (NSC)
ID
628