The delay in disbursement has forced the news organization, which relies almost exclusively on congressional funding, to furlough some of its staff and cut parts of its programming.
The Trump administration has failed to disburse congressionally approved funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the news network originally set up to counter Soviet propaganda during the Cold War, despite a judge’s order to keep it operating, according to court filings and officials at the news organization.
The news group, known as RFE/RL, has not received nearly $12 million for its April funding from the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the federal entity overseeing it. The unusual delay in the disbursement has forced the news organization, which relies almost exclusively on congressional funding, to furlough some of its staff and cut parts of its programming.
“We hope that U.S.A.G.M. sends our April funds immediately,” Benjamin Herman, the general counsel of the news group, said in a statement. “Our journalists across Europe and Asia, who assume enormous risk to work for RFE/RL, rely on the timely disbursement of these congressionally appropriated funds.”
The U.S. Agency for Global Media also canceled satellite contracts for RFE/RL on Thursday, potentially hampering the delivery of Russian-language programs from the news outlet, according to two RFE/RL officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matters related to an ongoing lawsuit. Around 40 partner stations in Europe that broadcast Radio Free Europe’s live programs in Russian rely on satellites.
In March, a federal judge in Washington temporarily halted President Trump’s efforts to shut down the news organization, ruling that his administration cannot unilaterally close a news group that Congress established by law. The judge, Royce C. Lamberth of the Federal District Count in Washington, wrote that “the continued operation of RFE/RL is in the public interest.”
But Marney L. Cheek, a lawyer representing the news group, said in a court filing on Monday that Trump officials “have refused to commit to disbursing RFE/RL’s congressionally appropriated funds for April 2025.”