President Donald Trump’s administration has wasted little time in seeking workforce reductions and wholesale change at a host of federal agencies, and that push shows no signs of slowing down, despite ongoing legal challenges.
Last week, in an effort to clean house at what the president views as an outlet overtaken by ideological bias in recent years, Kari Lake, the individual tasked with winding down operations at Voice of America (VOA) and other entities overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), issued termination notices to 532 remaining employees, as Politico reports.
Lake takes action
The news of the terminations came from Lake herself in a post on the X social media network.
Lake began by stating, “Tonight, the U.S. Agency for Global Media initiated what is known as a reduction in force, or RIF, of a large number of its full-time federal employees.”
She continued, “We are conducting this RIF at the President’s direction to help reduce the federal bureaucracy, improve agency service, and save the American people more of their hard-earned money.”
The move comes in the wake of a March decision placing almost all VOA staffers on administrative leave.
That determination was made in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s issuance of an executive order from the White House calling for the full dismantling of USAGM, which in itself prompted the majority of VOA’s broadcast funnels to go dormant, with roughly 600 VOA contractors also receiving firing notices in May.
Legal challenges persist
Despite Lake’s sweeping Friday announcement, it appears likely that the move will face a legal challenge, a scenario with which the administration is familiar as it attempts to continue its slimming of the federal workforce.
Earlier in the week, the White House suffered something of a defeat in its quest to bring a final end to VOA’s operations, when a federal judge stepped in to halt the administration’s attempted removal of Michael Abramowitz as director of the broadcast enterprise.
As the Associated Press notes, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that Abramowitz’s removal cannot proceed without approval from a majority of the International Broadcasting Advisory Board.
In Lamberth’s opinion, any firing in the absence of board approval would be “plainly contrary to law.”
Trump, in Lamberth’s opinion, simply lacks unilateral authority to fire VOA’s director.
Broadcaster’s future hangs in balance
The federally funded broadcasting outfit was launched during World War II, and its mission has been described as providing reliable, objective news to populations living in parts of the world where press freedom is lacking.
While critics of the Trump administration’s recent moves have expressed concern that the cuts jeopardize that overarching goal, Lake herself assured, “USAGM will continue to fulfill its statutory mission after this [reduction in force] — and will likely improve its ability to function and provide truth to people across the world who live under murderous Communist governments and other tyrannical regimes.” Whether that prediction is borne out, only time will tell.
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Author: Sarah May
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