“VOA has operated for over 80 years to report “accurate, objective, and comprehensive” news that will “present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively,” according to its charter.
The Trump administration in March ordered that federal grants through USAGM will be reviewed and “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” A D.C. Circuit panel paused orders blocking the cuts to USAGM funding for other outlets Thursday, but did not stop the order to return Voice of America staff to work.
The Saturday order changes that, with appellate Judges Neomi Rao and Gregory Katsas — both Trump appointees — ruling together to pause the part of the lower court order requiring the government “take all necessary steps to return USAGM employees and contractors to their status prior” to Trump’s executive order.
They found that the lower court likely did not have jurisdiction to order the employees back to work.
Judge Nina Pillard, an Obama appointee, dissented Saturday, writing that the decision is tantamount to “silencing Voice of America for the foreseeable future.”
But even when employees were looking at a return to work, some question whether or not the agency will be able to return to its previous state.
“We’re going to have to bring VOA out of a deep coma,” Steve Herman, VOA’s chief national correspondent, said in an interview with POLITICO before Saturday’s ruling. “And is it possible that it’ll ever regain full consciousness? That remains to be seen, because so much of the brain of VOA was destroyed by trying to strangle us.””
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/03/voice-of-america-resume-broadcasting-00325193