Project 2025 is a plan about how to regulate and control people of color, including how they organize, work, play and live. It seeks to regulate what they do with their bodies, how they advocate for their rights, and how they build family and community — all while disregarding the historical injustices and contemporary persecution they have experienced.
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U.S. Agency for Global Media
For example, the years-long delay in confirming the Trump-appointed
CEO left disastrous holdover leadership from the previous Administration. Employing effective leadership, even in an acting capacity, while anew CEO is awaiting Senate confirmation is necessary to prevent a repeat of this behavior.
• Congress. The USAGM receives its budget and mandates directly from Congress. Often, changes in major functions at the agency happen because of the lobbying efforts of a few connected individuals—often grantees lobbying for more funds and less accountability. Those changes can and do handcuff leadership from any meaningful oversight. An overhaul of the agency with review from Congress to modernize, streamline, and reduce waste must be done with congressional support.
• Key nongovernmental stakeholders, allies, and non-allies. These include industry groups, nonprofits, trade associations, foundations, and activist organizations, for example, America First Legal Foundation,** USAGM Watch,** BBG-USAGM Watch,* and Whistleblower Protection Project.*°
CONCLUSION
The USAGM is astory of a lost opportunity both to help restore the world’s confidence in the promise and ideals of America and to set a high mark for journalistic integrity and unbiased reporting. These two areas have suffered severely under two decades of USAGM mismanagement and lack of oversight. Finding solutions to these problems and the restoration of the agency’s networks must be the priorities of future agency leadership.
To accomplish this, the USAGM must be fully reformed top to bottom with congressional and White House support. The possibility of consolidating not only the agency’s subparts, but bringing the entire agency under the supervision of the NSC, the State Department, or both would dramatically aid that reform.
If the de facto aim of the agency simply remains to compete in foreign markets using anti-U.S. talking points that parrot America’s adversaries’ propaganda, then this represents an unacceptable burden to the U.S. taxpayer and a negative return on investment. In that case, the USAGM should be defunded and disestablished. If, however, the agency can be reformed to become an effective tool, it would be one of the greatest tools in America’s arsenal to tell America’s story and promote freedom and democracy around the world.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: The preparation of this chapter was a collective effort involving many individuals to whom thanks is owed. These individuals include, but are not limited to, Victoria Coates, Michael Pack, Frank Wuco, and several brave whistleblowers who prefer not to be named. Their efforts were integral to the chapter and are greatly appreciated.