Termination notices expected to go out to all remaining Voice of America employees this week

A senior VOA employee told POLITICO that based on his team’s conversations with staff at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, VOA’s parent company, the notices will likely affect all staff, effectively shutting down the international broadcasting network.

Human resources at USAGM was told that RIF notices will likely go out as soon as Wednesday, according to another VOA employee.

Thus far, USAGM has not responded to the union’s demand to bargain RIFs, which two of the employees said would be a violation of its collective bargaining agreement. A representative for the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents VOA, declined to comment on the record.

USAGM, the Department of Government Efficiency and the White House also did not respond to requests for comment.

The expected move comes as VOA has largely remained dark since March 15, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for VOA to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” along with several other agencies and offices. Trump has claimed that the network is “anti-Trump” and referred to it as “The Voice of Radical America.” Its employees say they have stood by their commitment to reporting nonpartisan news.

Since then, a few dozen VOA staffers have returned to office, which staffers believe is an effort from USAGM senior adviser Kari Lake — a staunch Trump ally — to maintain statutory minimums. The most recent article leading VOA’s website is from March 15. Earlier this month, Lake announced that VOA would receive content from One America News Network, a far-right, pro-Trump network that has propagated conspiracies around Covid-19 and the 2020 presidential election.

VOA has taken the Trump administration to court in the months following the order, arguing that the agency’s closure was unlawful under the First Amendment. But last week, a federal appeals court said it would not intervene in the administration’s efforts to dismantle the network.

The latest round of terminations could affect the ongoing litigation, but employees aren’t optimistic. “Even if somehow the organization can survive in some form, it would take years for our newsroom to overcome the trauma of being beaten up just for doing our job,” said VOA White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara, one of the plaintiffs in the case. “I don’t know how we can return to our mandate to report the facts without fear or favor.”