March 15 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump‘s latest round of cuts to the federal government includes the 83-year-old Voice of America.
Trump signed an executive order late in the week that calls for the elimination of the United States Agency for Global Media, which oversees the international state media network funded by the U.S. federal government.
The executive order also applies to six other smaller federal agencies.
“Within seven days of the date of this order, the head of each governmental entity listed in subsection (a) of this section shall submit a report to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget confirming full compliance with this order and explaining which components or functions of the governmental entity, if any, are statutorily required and to what extent,” the order states.
Trump has previously been critical of Voice of America, an international news broadcasting organization with a global reach.
The parent USAGM also oversees Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia, with the latter expected to close shortly, POLITICO reported.
The first 100 days of Trump’s presidency have seen thousands of layoffs of federal employees as he seeks to reduce the size of the government workforce.
Billionaire Elon Musk is leading the purge as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE.
On Friday, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy confirmed the United States Postal Service will cut around 10,000 jobs from its workforce over the next 30 days.
Johns Hopkins University announced Thursday it would layoff thousands of employees after federal funding cuts.
The other federal bodies included in Trump’s latest executive order are the the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and the Minority Business Development Agency.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is an agency responsible for issuing grants to libraries and museums.
Pushback on some fronts followed on Saturday.
“We are extremely concerned that the wording of this E.O. could result in cuts to the core functions of IMLS. The Administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have used similar E.O.s to dismantle the other federal agencies,” the non-partisan, pro-library organization EveryLibrary said in a statement.
“IMLS’s statutory obligations to state libraries include federal funding through the Grants to States program. This core work cannot be disrupted by DOGE.”
