March 19 (UPI) -- The independent international news organization Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty sued the United States Agency for Global Media for trying to stop a grant it was awarded by Congress.
RFE/RL announced Tuesday that the case will be heard in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, but did not offer a date for the hearing.
RFE/RL named UGASM, as well as its acting CEO Victor Morales and his senior advisor Kari Lake as the defendants, alleging that Congress appropriated funds precisely for RFE/RL, "and expressly directed [UGASM] to make those funds available," but now UGASM is purportedly "refusing to disburse the appropriated funds on the basis that it is ending its 'non-statutory' functions."
RFE/RL explained that it is a "statutory function" of UGASM.
"Whether to make those funds available through grants as directed is not an optional choice for the agency to make. It is the law. Urgent relief is needed to compel the agency to follow the law," it said.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday that reduced "elements of the Federal bureaucracy" that Trump "has determined are unnecessary." USAGM was among the entities targeted by the order, which insisted that it "reduce the performance," of its "statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law."
USAGM responded Saturday by cutting grants to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, or RFE/RL, among other global news operations.
