By RFE/RL May 02, 2025
A federal appeals court has granted a temporary stay of the court rulings requiring the Trump administration to cease blocking the flow of Congressionally approved money to several publicly-funded broadcasters — including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — that provide news and information to countries that have little to no independent press.
In the latest round of a funding battle with the Trump administration, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit late on May 1 issued what is known as an “administrative stay” to give “sufficient opportunity” to hear emergency motions presented by the Justice Department on behalf of USAGM.
Those emergency motions argue that the appeals court should suspend for the duration of the appeals process the earlier lower-court rulings that stopped USAGM from cutting off funds from the outlets as part of its cost-cutting measures.
The three-judge panel, two of whom were appointed by Trump while the third was appointed by former President Barack Obama, added the halt “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of those motions.”
The USAGM is an independent government agency that oversees RFE/RL, Voice of America, and several other US-funded broadcasters, which together distribute news and information in almost 50 languages to some 361 million people each week.
Hours after an executive order signed by Trump on March 14 called for the reduction of seven agencies — including USAGM — to “the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” the agency claimed to terminate RFE/RL’s congressionally appropriated funding for the 2025 budget year that ends on September 30.
Similar moves have affected Voice of America, as well as Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN).
The court left in place a lower court ruling requiring journalists from Voice of America to be reinstated — they were put on administrative leave the day of the executive order — and be allowed to resume the broadcaster’s news programming.
Unlike Voice of America, which is a federal entity, RFE/RL, RFA, and MBN are private non-profit organizations, funded through grants approved by Congress.
The three non-profit organizations have been forced to make staff cuts in order to continue operating as they await funds from their grants that the USAGM has held up.
RFA announced on May 2 that furloughed and the majority of its additional staff would be laid off, effective May 9. This means that by the end of May, half of RFA’s language services will no longer produce or publish new content, it said.
US District Judge Royce Lamberth granted RFE/RL a temporary restraining order (TRO) on April 29, writing that it was Congress that “ordained that the monies at issue should be allocated to RFE/RL,” and that President Donald Trump signed the budget resolution appropriating those funds.
On March 25, the same US court had granted an RFE/RL request for an earlier TRO, ruling that USAGM likely acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in terminating RFE/RL’s grant.
The next day, the USAGM wrote to RFE/RL saying it was reversing the announcement but that this was “without prejudice to USAGM’s authority to terminate the grant at a later date.”
RFE/RL was forced to seek another TRO in April after funds for that month were not disbursed. It also continues to seek an injunction to ensure the release of the rest of the money due from congressional appropriations for the 2025 budget year.
Source: funding-to-radio-free-europe-voa/33403256.html
Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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