Some affected employees worked for the Persian- language service and were called back to work just last week in light of the Middle East conflict.
Critics of the administration’s focus on VOA have said that the network has played a vital role in combatting disinformation abroad. But the administration says these cuts are in service of “cutting waste” and putting “American taxpayers first.”
“Today, we took decisive action to effectuate President Trump’s agenda to shrink the out-of-control federal bureaucracy,” senior presidential adviser Kari Lake said in a statement released Friday.
The move eliminates 1,400 jobs at U.S. Agency for Global Media, VOA’s parent agency, roughly an 85 percent cut to the workforce.
The last day on payroll for the employees will be Labor Day.
Some of those affected by Friday’s cuts who are not old enough for mandatory retirement, are being terminated without severance pay, according to one of the people. The move would contradict USAGM’s policy on severance.
“As our legal team fight[s] for our rights under the law, we call on Congress to continue its long tradition of bipartisan support for VOA,” the named plaintiffs in VOA’s lawsuit against the Trump administration said in a statement. “Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and extremist groups are flooding the global information space with anti-American propaganda. Do not cede this ground by silencing America’s voice.”
Lake said in her statement that 250 employees will remain across the USAGM, VOA and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. She noted that none of the OCB’s 33 employees were terminated.
The government-funded network, which was founded 80 years ago to combat Nazi disinformation during World War II, has — largely unsuccessfully — fought the administration’s decision in court. The administration sent RIF notices to employees in small batches for weeks.
But Friday’s notice could deliver the coup de grâce for Voice of America after decades of providing the world with accurate information in countries where media is state-run.