A federal judge has sharply criticized the Trump administration for failing to comply with orders to restore the operations of Voice of America (VOA), the U.S. government-funded broadcaster that has been mostly inactive since March.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C., ordered the administration to provide a detailed explanation by August 13 regarding how it plans to get VOA back up and running. He emphasized that the government must also account for how it’s using the $260 million appropriated by Congress for the broadcaster’s operations this year.
Voice of America, established during World War II, plays a critical role in delivering U.S.-backed news content to international audiences. Its silence in recent months has drawn growing concern from lawmakers and media advocates alike.
In June, Kari Lake, who was appointed by President Trump to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media—the umbrella organization overseeing VOA—stated that roughly 85% of VOA and agency staff had been let go. She described the move as a “long overdue effort to dismantle a bloated, unaccountable bureaucracy.”
But Judge Lamberth pushed back, pointing out that there’s a proper legislative process required to eliminate funding that has already been approved by Congress. He cited the example of recent Congressional action on funding for NPR and PBS, stressing that no such vote occurred for VOA.
He also rebuked the administration for failing to provide straightforward responses in prior court filings. “Without more explanation, the court is left to conclude that the defendants are simply trying to run out the clock on the fiscal year, without putting the money Congress appropriated toward the purposes Congress intended,” Lamberth wrote. “The legal term for that is ‘waste.’”
As of now, the White House has not issued any public response to the judge’s ruling.
