▶ 0:00:00ally lost their way and allowed themselves to become a source of However, it's clear that USAGM cannot continue to operate as it has in recent times. Drastic measures have to be taken to ensure that every taxpayer dollar works for where those dollars come from, the American people, not Xi Jinping, not Vladimir Putin, not the Ayatollah.
▶ 0:00:28I want to thank our witness, Carrie Lake, for appearing in front of this committee today. I'm looking forward to hearing your testimony. I'm looking forward to a productive and probably a rowdy discussion about the Trump administration's vision for the future of US broadcasting. And in that, I'm going to recognize my colleague, Ranking Member Meeks, for any opening statement that you may have. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, and Miss Lake, I thank you for joining us today.
▶ 0:00:55First, I'd like to address President Trump's recent strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, an action taken without consulting the committee or securing congressional authorization. And it's troubling that Secretary Rubio is not sitting here today, and that Republican members are avoiding oversight on such grave matters of war and peace that fall squarely on this committee's Instead, as this title shows, this hearing's title shows, we're returning to House Republicans fixation
▶ 0:01:25on a far on far-fetched conspiracies. This time to tear down the US Agency for Global Media and the important work it This tracks with President Trump's broad record of denigrating federal agencies and appointing leaders that far from shephering their agencies to success are stewards of their sabotage.
▶ 0:01:48And I believe Miss Lake, you fall into this The story of the United States Agency for Global Media began with the Voice of America countering Nazi propaganda. That mission endured through the Cold War and continues today.
▶ 0:02:04USAGM is mandated to reach heavily censored countries with trusted information because Congress recognized that factual reporting contributes to international peace and stability and is in the interest of the United States of America. The irony that USA GM is now being undone under a banner of disinformation is not lost on me.
▶ 0:02:29Worse, some Republicans wanted it to be transformed into every propaganda machine we oppose abroad. The Trump administration's short-sighted dismantling of USA GM echoes its attacks on the US Agency for International Development, spinning false narratives about corruption and waste to dismantle effective institutions Congress established with bipartisan support.
▶ 0:02:56Miss Lake, if it was your goal at USAGM to use for falsehood to advance an I believe then you're qualified for this job. Your opening statement, as I read, is full of false narratives, aided by Republicans on this committee who still refuse to release their own investigation transcripts. So, Mr. Chairman, if your findings are solid, release those transcripts now.
▶ 0:03:23The taxpayers who funded this work deserve transparency, not cherrypicked quotes that suit your sham narrative. And again, I ask that the transcripts, all of them, be made publicly so that the public can read and see everything, not cherrypicked sentences.
▶ 0:03:42Before it was before two was fed into the wood chipper, USA GM and its broadcasters were reaching a record 427 million people weekly, delivering objective news to China, Iran, Russia, and other repressive states. Last year, VA's Persian service recorded 223 million visits to its website, doubling over four years.
▶ 0:04:08It had 9.8 million social media followers and 1.8 8 billion Instagram views. Then, Miss Lake, you put VA Persian on leave in March, scrambled to restore it in June when war erupted, and inexplicably a week later announced mass firings. So, the question is, which is it?
▶ 0:04:30Is USAGM and the work it supports unsavvageable waste as you have said, or is it a critical tool for diplomacy and facts? What you're doing isn't efficiency, it's chaos. The dysfunction lies in the administration's allergy to truth and democracy, the two pillars that USA GM aims to promote abroad.
▶ 0:04:54So, I'm not surprised by the choice to gut USA since the first Trump administration targeted the enterprise, violating laws and journalistic integrity to shape it into a state media like Russia's or North Korea's. Today, those regimes are actually cheering as we surrender another potent set of soft power tools and abandon the airwaves.
▶ 0:05:24The Trump administration again chose extremism over facts, tearing down rather than building up our information advantage. Will Congress defend USAGM and free media or rubble rubber stamp this capitulation to China, Russia, and Iran. Our our adversaries are already filling the void.
▶ 0:05:49But it's not too late to savage to uh US AGM. Not from itself, as Miss Lake says, but from this administration's shortsighted hatchet job. With that, I yield back the balance of my time. I thank the ranking member for his comments. I'd say be careful what you wish for. Miss Lake has provided binders and binders of information that have been included in her opening statement. They are in the official record and I'm sure everybody will looking forward to reading that documentation.
▶ 0:06:20Other members of the committee are reminded that opening statements may be submitted for the record. We are pleased to have the senior adviser for the US Agency of Global Media, Miss Carrie Lake, before us today. Your full statements will be made a part of the record and I'll ask you to keep your spoken remarks to roughly five minutes in order to allow time for member questions. I now recognize you, Miss Lake, for any opening statement that you may have. Good morning and and thank you chairman mast and ranking member Meeks and members of this House Foreign Affairs Committee. Thanks for having me.
▶ 0:06:50My name is Carrie Lake. I'm the Trump administration senior adviser to the US Agency for Global Media. Before I get started, uh Mr. Chairman, I'd like to let you know this opening statement I'll be delivering is is a shortened version of a longer version that I have submitted to you earlier and would love to be put into the congressional record. Last December, President-elect Donald Trump called me and asked if I would help reform US Agency for Global Media and the Voice of America. And I said yes.
▶ 0:07:16I was honored and eager to help these institutions tell America's story to the world. But within days in my role as senior adviser, it became increasingly clear that reform was nearly impossible. The agency was incompetent and mismanaged and deeply corrupt, politically biased, and frankly a serious threat to our national security.
▶ 0:07:36USAGM oversees VA, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and grantees like Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe, Middle East Broadcasting Network, Open Technology Fund, and Frontline Media Fund, all of which are 100% funded by the hardworking American people. Over the past 15 to 20 years, the agency has become a significant national security risk. They hire a shockingly high number of foreign nationals, and they conduct subpar security vetting.
▶ 0:08:03so bad that top intelligence agencies revoked this agency's ability to do even the most basic background checks. So many of us hires come from countries hostile to the United States. Over the decade from 2010 to 2020, Office of Personnel Management and the Office of the NA Director of National Intelligence repeatedly flagged severe security failures, but US AGM leadership ignored them.
▶ 0:08:29They continued to grant journalists and technicians, many from foreign nations, highlevel security access based on falsified documents, and incomplete background checks, phony names, phony social security numbers, even after corrective actions were taken in the final months of the Trump administration. These safeguards were reversed by the incoming Biden administration. The scale of the problem is staggering. During the first Trump administration, the political appointees led by CEO Michael PAC got to work fixing it.
▶ 0:08:58And they discovered that out of 150 people who were hired during that time period when they weren't doing appropriate vetting, 500 of them were still out there and they could not find them. They went back and revetted everybody, but 500 had gone missing. They could not be located for further screening. foreign employees with social security numbers that are fake and fake names given top secret access now missing. That keeps me up at night. My team is working to track them down.
▶ 0:09:28Our new security director is working to try to turn this agency around and make it where it's safer. It's a vast problem that we've uncovered. We've also uncovered that the grantees like RadioFree Europe hired people later identified as foreign spies. At one point, they nearly hired more than 20 spies from a nation hostile to America. Those hires were stopped thanks to a timely tip, and I'm happy to give you more information on that in a secure setting. Voice of America has employed individuals with direct ties to hostile nations.
▶ 0:09:58They even once paid a Russian med uh uh paid for somebody who worked previously in Russian media writing anti-American stories to come on the staff and continue to write anti-American stories. At one point a serious security threat to America, an office of Cuba broadcasting Cuba was declared to be a national security threat. He was fired thankfully, but he worked there for quite some time. So how many how do they get so many foreign nationals in?
▶ 0:10:24Well, they abused the J1 visa program, which is a pathway to citizenship intended for exchange students and cultural exchanges, students, camp counselors, and opairs. It's not intended for journalists and it's created severe vulnerabilities and frankly it has displaced many many American workers who could have filled these jobs. VA also sidestepped their charter to be reliable authoritative news instead being riddled with political bias and outright anti-American sentiment. examples.
▶ 0:10:54You mentioned it, chairman, refusing to call Hamas terrorists, glamorizing Che Guavara, airing campaign style videos favoring President Biden, even broadcasting a graphic depicting President Trump with a swastika over his face on their news. I wouldn't want that, by the way, even if it was President Biden. That's totally and a ridiculous editorial firewall prevents agency leadership like myself from correcting any of the bias or having any say in the editorial content that goes on the air.
▶ 0:11:25We've also got financial mismanagement, which I hope we'll go into. $75,000 spent for a COVID study on how Mac computers can be used for social distancing. $100,000 in American taxpayer money to actually sponsor a Afghan Cricut team. $400,000 for quidd proquo payments to African VA affiliates. And they actually wrote quid proquo next to the budget item.
▶ 0:11:51$825,000 for a New York music show and $6 million contract for consulting advice that was never even implemented. I told these stories to people and many times they say, "Wow, this place sounds like a crime scene." And I frankly have just learned that it is indeed a crime scene.
▶ 0:12:09We've learned that there is an active investigation going on at VA for a series of threatening phone calls that have been coming out going after one of your colleagues, a sitting member of Congress with years worth of threatening phone calls and they've discovered that those phone calls were coming from inside the Voice of America. This place is rotten. It's rotten to the core. President Trump has asked me to go in and help clean it up.
▶ 0:12:37And he's also issued an an executive order to reduce this agency down to its mandate to what is mandated statutoily required. That's exactly what I'm doing. I don't care if they attack me. We're going to make it right for the American taxpayers. And with that, I'm happy to answer any of your questions. Thank you, Miss Lake, for your opening We're now going to move to member questions. We ask that members peep their questions to uh five minutes.
▶ 0:13:06I'm going to begin by working down the line. I'll start by recognizing the chairman of Meredus, Representative McCll. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Lake, thanks for uh being here today. I want to thank you for visiting with me my office to talk about these challenges that you've outlined. I think the chairman has outlined them quite well. Um I want to commend you for reforming US AGM. I think every new administration has a right and responsibility to do so.
▶ 0:13:36Uh your testimony has highlighted systemic problems that must be addressed, more importantly, security lapses, misuse of visas, weak editorial oversight, and much more. I um look forward to authorizing this agency with the chairman and his authorization bill to these abuses.
▶ 0:14:01I remember President Reagan used Voice of America when I was entering college um as a frontline voices against Soviet It was a voice of America, not the voice of anti-America. Recently, I used the voice of America and open technology fund to translate my report on the origins of CO 19. We disseminated it through mainland China, broke through the firewall.
▶ 0:14:29It went viral, got the attention of the CCP foreign minister who spoke out against me and the report. That's the kind of impact this agency needs to to need to With the events in Iran, we need America's voice in Iran right now. We need to ensure the Iranian people hear the truth that we do not intend to harm them but rather their oppressor and the theocratic regime of the ayatollah.
▶ 0:15:00We need communications inside and outside of Iran. This week, General Vogle, the scentcom commander, said the voice of America is a critical tool for American security. You've outlined why there are many insecurities. I hope we can go back to that core My dad's war, combating the Nazis.
▶ 0:15:25So my question is, Miss Lake, how are you working to fix the voice of America? So it is the voice of America and not anti-America in Iran and use the open technology fund to achieve the mission, the core mission that Congress intended. Thank you for that question and thank you for uh laying out when when it was a better a better agency.
▶ 0:15:54You're right, Ronald Reagan used it, a great broadcaster, one of the great communicators and he used it. But times have changed and and it's still doing 1990s style television in a world where people are getting their information right here on their on their smartphones. It's in the back pocket. And so we need to update it and modernize it. But President Trump's executive order dated March 14th has called for this agency to be brought to its statutory minimum.
▶ 0:16:18And I'm glad that you mentioned Iran because one of the languages that is required in the in the statute is uh Farsy and we are still broadcasting in Farsy and uh uh chairman uh ranking member rather Meeks said that we have not been and that we in a panic started to to put uh news out in Farsy. That is actually not true.
▶ 0:16:41We were in the process of effectuating President Trump's executive order and in the process of doing that several malicious lawsuits were started up and the judge froze us from being able to get news on. We literally were frozen in place because of all of these lawsuits. Once we were freed to start putting news on, we immediately went to what the statutory minimum is. And one of the languages is Farsy going into Iran.
▶ 0:17:05And I'm very proud to say that when President Trump when the when the bombings happened over the weekend on Saturday and when President Trump started to speak, we had a crew in on Saturday delivering President Trump's message to the people of Iran in Farsy. It was translated and it went out. Sometimes a lean and mean and a smaller staff makes it easier to get things done. And in one of the emails that I got from our our Persian team, they actually said that they were able to move quicker because it was smaller.
▶ 0:17:35the bloat had been diminished and I'm really proud the fact that we got that on. We're going to continue to operate at the statutory minimum. We are putting out content in Pashtto, Dari, Mandarin, Farsy and Spanish through Office of Cuba I thank you for that response. I think it's very important right now that the Iranian people hear the American story and the American message and I commend you for your efforts to reform.
▶ 0:18:03And I uh I encourage you uh to get that message into Iran right now. Communication inside and out is so important for those people if they're going to rise up against the oppressive theocracy that we've endured since 1979. I yield back. Recognize ranking member Meeks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 0:18:25Let me first uh enter into the record a letter that uh you and I received, Mr. Chairman, from four bipartisan members of the International Broadcasting Advisory Board, which Congress established and confirmed in 2023. Without objection. Thank you. Now, Miss Lake, you may recall the White House fired the board members earlier. Let me just first say this because I do agree with Mr.
▶ 0:18:52a call on the need of making sure that the voice of America in those places where our adversaries have false information going through but you cannot do that simply by reducing and ending all individuals that are work within that agency.
▶ 0:19:18So now these board members for example that were fired despite their political and policy differences those members wrote and I quote defunding as you have done these networks because you can't do anything without money but defunding these networks at this critical moment will undermine the United States efforts to counter the biased narratives from America's
▶ 0:19:48author authoritarian competitors is crucial. Some have said that it seems as though that our adversaries under this has been considered or treated like they're our allies and our allies have been treated as if they're our Now, I agree with the experts that put this letter in.
▶ 0:20:16There are grave risks right now for the United States national security posed by USAGM and the broadcasters it supports. Now one of the things I want to do maybe we can do this and it's trying to save some time. I you know I serve on the financial services committee also where we often engage with companies about the risk analysis that they perform before making major business decisions to outpace their competitors.
▶ 0:20:45Uh, and I know I hear my Republican colleagues often say that uh, government should be run like a business. So, I just want to try to just get a few yes or no questions in the time that we have uh, just so that I know we can either get some of the information that the chairman said you are bringing or have brought with you.
▶ 0:21:04So my question to you is, did you conduct or review a written analysis before placing most of the USA GMs and VA's employees on administrative leave on March 15th, before cutting off payments to USA GM grantees in March, or before announcing a reduction in force at the VA last Friday? Yes or no?
▶ 0:21:29I've been working in media for 30 years and in every newsroom across this country in that time. Yes or no? Did you do this? These are these are complex questions. They're not yes or no question. Either you did a review or you didn't. We are we are right sizing an agency that has grown and grown. Did you do a review? We have look we've reviewed Yes, we've reviewed you've done a review. Do you have a record of Do you have a record of what you reviewed?
▶ 0:21:53We have we have reviewed the number of employees, the number of languages, but most of all what we reviewed was an executive order March 14th by the man who's in charge of executive branch. I want to know his name is Donald Trump. Do you have a record that you can produce? The chairman said you had a bunch of things with you. Do you have a record of what you reviewed and who you reviewed to? We reviewed the statute. Do you have a record? Yes or no? We have the statute and we reviewed the statute.
▶ 0:22:22Yeah, we can pull that statute. If you have a not the statute, the record of individuals that you reviewed, interviewed or talked to before you committed your actions of dismantling. I worked with I talked to a lot of people at the agency. Do you have a record of that? You could go back and look at emails. Do you have a record? Do you want me to pull emails? I want you to show the record of what you did, Miss Lake. Well, you can show me something that's not verified. Tell me.
▶ 0:22:50Show me the record because that's what I hear often times in the business. You have to have a record. Show me the record that you did what you did. That's all. It's let me I mean did you survey Let me ask this question then. Did you survey employees that was there about waste, fraud, and abuse do you believe was occurring at the agency? Did you survey said that there's waste, fraud, and abuse? Did you survey the employees?
▶ 0:23:20Yes or no? Well, yes or no. These are these are ridiculous questions. Did you serve? It's simple answers. You either did or you didn't. Yeah, I guess survey means talk to Did you do it or not? Sure, we did. You did? Then you can provide those surveys. You can show us a record of who you talked. We did not run an expensive survey, but I've talked to many people at the state. You didn't do so. You didn't do that either. So, this was based on a whim. Okay. Thank you, member. Time is expired. I want to thank you for your five minutes of questioning.
▶ 0:23:49I'm now going to recognize Representative Smith for five minutes of questioning. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and welcome uh to the committee. Miss Lake, I uh chair the Congressional Exe Executive Commission on China. We've had many, many hearings. We've worked on legislation.
▶ 0:24:06One of my bills that passed just a few weeks ago uh was to combat the heinous practice of forced organ harvesting where 50 70,000 young people average age 28 get their organs taken their weaguers their fallong gong practitioners uh it passed 406 to1 second time it passed passed last year as well had four hearings on it Xi Jinping is committing atrocities like almost no one else in the world and whether it be what he's done to Hong Kong the pervasive
▶ 0:24:36use of torture, religious persecution everywhere you look, uh, genocide against the weaguers. Uh, and then in your testimony, and I would ask you if you could maybe elaborate on this, you point out that the past leadership of VA, Mandarin Language Services conducted annual meetings with the Chinese embassy in Washington. Well, I go to the Chinese embassy myself outside picketing. Uh, we try to meet I've invited Chinese leaders here from the embassy and from the government many times to testify. every time they turn us down.
▶ 0:25:06Um, but if you could elaborate on those meetings, whatever you could tell us. You also pointed out uh that VA's Mandarin language service personalities have hosted events at the Chinese embassy. And one of VA's television editors even publicly pledged his allegiance to the PRC at a Chinese embassy event.
▶ 0:25:24And finally, you said VA allowed the communist Vietnamese and Chinese embassies in DC to pressure them into removing videos, cutting short live interviews, or changing story angles so that coverage was more supportive of the Chinese governments of Hanoi and Beijing. If you could elaborate on that, I'd deeply appreciate. I'd be happy to. And I I just actually read an article that that was very u interesting. It's called Chinese Influence at Voice of America.
▶ 0:25:50And I mentioned that there's a firewall, an editorial firewall that uh members of the management at USAGM and and Voice of America cannot tell the reporters what to report. Uh they can't talk about what should be in the newscast. And so if a reporter decides to go rogue and do proc coverage, I can't do anything about it. That's not how a newsroom should be run. I worked in news rooms my whole life.
▶ 0:26:18There's always some editorial control that management has so that you're making sure that what goes out of the airway is accurate and and frankly in an agency such as this it should be telling America's story. That's our charter. Telling America's story, being authoritative, not telling China's story. But I want to talk to you a little bit about what you just mentioned. If I may read this because it's it was really shocking when I when I read this and sorry, I got to put my reading glasses on for this one, guys.
▶ 0:26:45Um, starting in the first decade of the 2000s, the Chinese embassy in Washington DC and the leadership of VA's Mandarin Service began began an annual meeting to allow embassy officials to voice their opinions about VA's content. So, management at USA GM has no say in what content it goes on, but the folks over at the CCP and the Chinese embassy do have say about what goes on our air.
▶ 0:27:10CCP embassy officials have also reached out to VA hosts to convince them to be more supportive of the regime. VA personalities have hosted events at the embassy. VA TV editor, one of them, publicly pledged his allegiance to China at a Chinese embassy event. This is absurd. This is insane. And the American taxpayers are footing the bill for this. You know, they also ran a twominute CCP propaganda.
▶ 0:27:38They produced it at VA and the management agreed that it was CCP propaganda. Frankly, two seconds of CCP propaganda is too much. The American people are footing the bill. And so things have to change there. We need to make sure that firewall is gone. We should be able to have control over what kind of content goes out. It should be in alignment with our foreign policy. And unfortunately, the only people that seem to have any influence are our adversaries on what is going out on VA's airwaves.
▶ 0:28:09It's outrageous and it has to stop. And thankfully, President Trump issued that executive order to bring this agency down to its statutory minimum and he has called for this agency to be eliminated starting in the fiscal year 2026. Well, thank you for your testimony. Thank you for highlighting that important uh complicity with the brutality of the Chinese Communist Party. You know, I'm barred from going to China. I used to lead human rights missions there frequently. Uh the Global Times put me on their so-called hit list.
▶ 0:28:40And I can tell you, you know, I can't go to China and yet we had people uh collaborating with their top leadership here in DC and elsewhere. Uh and that is outrageous. We need to reform this. And uh and I agree with you. You can judge a man by his enemies and you've got good enemies. Thank you very much. yield back. Representative yields back. Representative Keading is now recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for being here.
▶ 0:29:02I think if we look at uh exhibit A in terms of the value of global media, uh we look no further than Iran. Uh Trump administration uh took great uh attention towards the bombing uh that occurred. But to really be successful, uh, what's going to be necessary is not just strong diplomacy, but changing the views of the people that live there.
▶ 0:29:28And Secretary Rubio in his nominate and his, uh, Senate confirmation stressed that there's probably no greater discrepancy between the actions of one government and their people than Uh, and even before this action, before the war, 6.6 6 million Iranians, 10% of the adult population got their news from FARA radio network that's there and it's produced uh
▶ 0:29:58uh in an agency that you sat to terminate the contracts of at a time when it's needed more than ever cutting transmission feeds uh from the Middle East broadcasting network. Uh it's resulted in 90% those actions of yours 90% of the staff being cut. Some of the people on radio for your Europe Radio Liberty are furled.
▶ 0:30:26Programming's been reduced at a time when we need it the most. I'm concerned also not just with the cuts, but I'm concerned for the journalists that report this news. They're in great jeopardy. A lot of attention in Europe opening remarks went to vetting and the extreme efforts that you're doing for vetting. I want to know what you're doing to protect those journalists.
▶ 0:30:51Uh one just recently released the other day after four years of detainment uh by the uh talked about the way he was tortured and physically abused and psychologically abused. These are journalists that are there. These are people trying to bring uh the word of democracy to people that have not. What are you doing to support these journalists? What attention? I didn't notice it in your opening remarks. That should be first and foremost.
▶ 0:31:21What are you doing to protect these people? I agree. I I think the safety and security of journalists is very important. I was a journalist in uh my past profession and so uh it's it's incritically important and I don't think that they've done enough to protect them. I'm thankful that recently in the last few days one journalist who is being held was released thanks to President Trump and you know I think you need to ask RF Radio Free Europe what they're doing to protect their employees.
▶ 0:31:47I just got to the agency three months ago and what the question is I would like to know if I may reclaiming my time I'm reclaiming my time Mr. Chairman uh you know that's like blaming the group that's advocating for these people. What are they doing? I'll tell you what they're doing. They've simply asked for a meeting with you. It's hard to meet somebody.
▶ 0:32:11I have a letter that I' I'd like to ask unanimous consent be put in the record uh from uh the president uh of Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, the president of Radio Free Asia, the president of Middle East broadcasting networks dated April 30th simply asking for some kind of communications or meeting uh with you uh regarding uh these issues of detainment.
▶ 0:32:35I'd also like to put into the record uh an article that audience in Iran uh and the Middle East surge as funding for FOD and URA amid east Israel uh is in jeopardy. If you look at what's happening uh and you look what happened since the uh the the bombing occurred and since the war occurred, you just see dramatic increases in the listenership just proving how vital this is to people that aren't getting other messages.
▶ 0:33:06Uh radio f traffic surged 344%. The Instagram account 62.5 million increases a rise of 77%. These are things that are necessary and you are cutting the agreements. Thank goodness the courts are saying no to you. But why would you ever want to do this here?
▶ 0:33:28Uh why would you not why do you better say I want to know what Radio Free uh Europe Radio Liberty is doing to protect the journalists when the US and you have a role in doing it and you won't even take a meeting from the people that want to meet and discuss the dangers to these journalists. Uh I hope that you will take that meeting and we get a confirmation for you by the end of this hearing that you will meet them soon and discuss this issues. People's lives are in danger trying to tell the truth. I yield back.
▶ 0:33:58If they would drop their malicious lawsuit, I'd be happy to meet with him, but it would be really stupid to meet with someone who's suing you. And you know, this is a gentleman who makes about 310 $320,000 off the backs of hardworking Americans and is suing our agency. We've given we've given him all official who's making money off the backs of Americans when we have a commander-in-chief making the money he's making. So, I don't President Donald Trump donates his salary back. Gentleman yields back. Gentleman's time is expired. Uh, this is submitted for the record.
▶ 0:34:28Uh, I was glancing through it and just FYI, I'm going to keep reading it, but I don't actually see a request for a meeting with Miss Lake in the letter. Uh, as was referenced, I see bring to her attention, but no request for a meeting in this letter, but I'll let you know if that changes as I read through it. Uh, Representative Perry is now recognized. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Miss Lake, would you care to answer the question further? The last question further. Do you want to expound on any of that? Well, I I think it is difficult to meet with people when they're suing you.
▶ 0:34:55it just isn't advised and if you any attorney would tell you you can't sit down and meet with somebody who's launched malicious lawsuits against the agency naming me in those lawsuits. So it would be it'd be ill- advised to do that obviously you know we do not have a a current grant agreement with RF radio Europe which was started you know many many years ago as a CIA operation and we don't have a current grant agreement with them.
▶ 0:35:23We've been asking to work with them negotiating a grant agreement and they refuse. We offered a grant to them and they refused to even mark it up and redline it and send it back to us. So, we don't have an approved financial plan. They won't tell us where they're spending their money. We've got an audit going on right now and they've stonewalled and prevented us from getting any access to their financial books. Again, we pay them and they do not tell us where the money is going. I I think that's a problem.
▶ 0:35:51I think the American people deserve to know where their money is going and and so we're working to make sure we get that. Interestingly, in the 11th hour last night, right before I crawled into bed, uh we found out that they're finally going to give a little bit of information to our auditors. I thought it was really interesting timing because they didn't want me to sit up here and say they refuse to let us look at their books. They refuse to let us see where the American taxpayer dollars are going and once it's getting funneled into RFIL.
▶ 0:36:20And if they really, you know, I want they we've paid them every month, by the way. So if if they're not protecting their journalists, it's on them. If they're not putting out broadcasting, it's on them. We have paid them every month because the judge has ordered us to. And so it's on them if they're not putting out broadcasting. Mr. Lake, this is clearly an agency that has run a muk. Um I I wouldn't characterize it as treason, but it sounds like it's certainly sedicious. Um are you familiar with the Maguire Woods report?
▶ 0:36:47I'm very familiar and it's in one of these binders and it was an incredible uh report looking at some of the mismanagement u misuse of funds and other uh outrageous things that were happening at this agency.
▶ 0:36:59To that end, I just want to inform you that I struggled mightily probably for about six months in in this committee and and in Congress to have that entered into the congressional record uh so that the American people could see the misuses of their money and the sedicious activity by an agency they were paying for.
▶ 0:37:18And I think as part of that 40% of the workforce at that time was improperly vetted and USAGM lost their ability to conduct security clearances but continued to conduct them for 10 years after which they had lost their ability to conduct security clearances and that uh the use of J1 visas to hire foreign journalists and technical staff without systematic review resulted in propaganda that was favorable to adversaries and enemies.
▶ 0:37:47as opposed to the United States of America with American tax dollars spent, you know, paid for with American tax dollars. Now, somebody might say, well, that was a mistake and yeah, that was a misstep. But it seems to me this was an orchestrated plan by someone at USAGM. And so my question begins with, have we determined from the Magguire Woods report or any of your investigation at this point?
▶ 0:38:13Who by name authorized this activity over that long period of time? And these people antithetical to the United States of America? Who did that? And what accountability has been put in place? What prosecutions have happened as a result of that? What accountability has taken place if any? Sadly, um there hasn't been any accountability that that Maguire Woods report was done in the waning days of President Trump's first term.
▶ 0:38:43Uh Michael Pac was the CEO and he helped make that possible. He saw the first day on the job he got dropped on his desk this issue with 1500 employees had not been properly screened and he said this is a real big problem. ODNI was saying you got a serious problem over there. you guys are freelancing on your your security screenings and you're allowing dangerous people into our country. And so they got busy investigating how this was happening.
▶ 0:39:10They put people on administrative leave and before they could do anything and get and and fire people. People had left that were being investigated. When the Trump administration ended and Biden went into office and replaced the leadership at this agency, they rehired all of those people back. So, let me cut you off. I've got a limited amount of time. Of course, this is completely outrageous.
▶ 0:39:37But why should anybody in this country, anybody in this committee, anybody in Congress believe that this agency, this operation should continue to exist and won't return to its former operations and activities beyond the Trump administration and beyond your tenure? Why should anyone believe that? Uh they shouldn't believe it. And I think this is why President Trump wants to eliminate the agency. It the agency itself is not needed.
▶ 0:40:01It's proven that it does not know how to manage and does not know how to be respectful of uh of this country and the American taxpayers's dollars. And so I think President Trump is absolutely right in eliminating this agency. We can roll in things that are valuable that are worthwhile. Bring it under the Department of State where it once was, by the way, Voice of America back when it was effective.
▶ 0:40:21Back when many of you talk about the glory days of Voice of America, it was under the Department of State where there was there were guard rails on what would the story of America was being told, it wasn't anti-American. It was in line with our foreign policy and I think that's where it probably should end up. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield. Gentleman yields and your time expired. Uh chair now recognizes Representative Barah. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 0:40:44Um, I'd like to enter in to the record a letter updated yesterday from the president of the news guild just asking this committee to take a look and make sure the funds that um are supposed to be restored actually get um restored to the the Thank you. Um, you know, here's what bothers me about this.
▶ 0:41:07reforms are fine and so forth, but you know, I agree with um my good friend from Texas, um the chairman emeritus, um Mr. McCall about the importance of um having tools like the open technology fund that can translate, use the internet, use Instagram, etc. to get out there and get our message to to places like China, etc. I agree with Chairman Smith. I mean, we've got to speak to the Chinese people about what's happening to the weager population.
▶ 0:41:38We've got to have those tools. So, eliminating those tools wholesale um make us weaker as a country. That is a a problem. And in fact, our secretary of state um penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal back in 2018 talking about how important what RadioFree Asia does is in exposing China's campaign against its Muslim minorities, the Weaguers. Um Mr. Chairman, I'd like to enter that op-ed into the record if I might. So here here's the challenge.
▶ 0:42:06The ranking member raised I think what is a very important issue. Um you know we we can debate you know whether this say an independent agency come back into the state department or not but I the wholesale way of dismantling this agency. Um I think the chairman asked a legitimate question. What was the strategy? What was um was there a methodical approach to looking at the agency? What was effective? What was not effective? What should we be doing? What should we not be doing?
▶ 0:42:35Um Miss Lake, can you provide kind of that methodical approach um in terms of how the administration, how you looked at, you know, what essentially is a dismantling of this agency? Yeah, we actually got to work after um the 14th of March and we put people on administrative leave and assessed what the statuto provide us documentation of that so we can do our job as well in meetings and and in discussions we we talked about the minutes of those meetings and you know the the documentation
▶ 0:43:06uh it would be emails and things of the such but that's all stuff that we can take a look at as a committee as we do oversight again I'm not sure I'm not against modernizing the agency I'm not against looking at things the the challenge Mr. Keading touched on, you know, we're in the middle of um what is a war in the Middle East. Hopefully this ceasefire holds. Hopefully the Iranian people rise up and demand a better future. You know, I've reserved judgment on the president's actions.
▶ 0:43:34I do want the administration to come brief us on what they're thinking, how this is unfolding, but absolutely right now we need all of our tools to communicate to the Iranian people. We need um to do that through the radio, through the internet, through Instagram. I'm not a big Tik Tok fan. Yeah, I supported the Tik Tok ban, but if folks are getting information on Tik Tok, we've got to be using that as well.
▶ 0:43:58I am very concerned that the personnel have been laid off that, you know, we're working with the shoestring staff that is making us weaker and less effective at a moment of vulnerability for the Iranian regime where this could be a time where the Iranian people choose to take a different path forward.
▶ 0:44:14What I would like to do and what I'd like a commitment to do and I'd asked the chairman for this is there was a time on this committee where we actually did do reforms when I was a freshman member of Congress under chairman Ed Royce um at that time ranking member Elliot Angles we actually did do a bipartisan reform bill that I believe passed this committee unanimously and move forward. Um that's our job like you should be working with us.
▶ 0:44:43We should not be dismantling an agency that we've seen over history has been super effective whether it was in World War II combating the Nazis in the Cold War um going against the repressive um Russian um or Soviet Union and the Communist Party. What I think the administration's doing and how they've approached this is making us weaker and it is not a systematic way of thinking about how you reform and modernize things.
▶ 0:45:09I'd love to see the records, the minutes, the emails so we can actually do our job in oversight and I'd love for you to work and Mr. Chairman for us to work together in a bipartisan way to say, "Okay, in the 21st century, we do need tools to um combat the propaganda that our enemies are putting out there. We do need to hire the best folks. We do need to have all of that.
▶ 0:45:30Again, Miss Lake, I'd love your commitment to work with this committee, work with Congress to enact those reforms and share the information and what you're thinking. U absolutely. It would be wonderful to work with you and and to effectuate the president's executive order to reduce this agency down in size so that it's lean, mean, and effective. And I think it is effective. We were able to get information out into uh and translated into Farsy as to what was happening.
▶ 0:45:57We were able to get President Trump's address translated live as it was happening. You don't need a massive staff. This is the only newsroom in the world that hasn't seen uh hasn't seen cutbacks because we don't need to have massive newsrooms. 15,000 right now. What I worry about though is we've let go of all this staff and it isn't happening and it's only happening. We haven't let go of all the staff. Actually, gentleman's time is expired. By the way, can I can I just mention something? I want to show you the newsroom.
▶ 0:46:27One of the news rooms over at VA. I don't know if you can see this empty. There's if you could. It's kind of a Where's Waldo? Can you spot the one person in there? Not from here. One person in the newsroom. And I know you're probably saying, "Yeah, thanks a lot, Carrie." No, this was actually back during the Biden administration. I didn't hear any complaints coming from anybody when nobody was showing up for work at VA.
▶ 0:46:49when one person was showing up in the middle of the week, one person showed up and nobody on this committee, nobody in no no Democrat said, "Why is there only one person in that newsroom? We need to get more people in the newsroom to get the story out." Nobody was showing up for work. And now that we are actually rightsizing an agency that has been bloated out of control and has never been rightsized, even though news rooms all across this country, Mr. Chairman, now going to recognize myself for five minutes of questioning. Oh, Mr. Mr.
▶ 0:47:18Chairman, unanimous consent just for clarification. Was that in the middle of COVID, by the way? This was last November, so I think CO was over. Good question. But the elections were maybe had something to do with the elections. Well, I think you'd want to be in there if there was election. This is the middle of the week in November. I' I've been in news rooms. You there are actually really full during an election. But I know this newsroom was ready to attack President Trump. They were doing ads for Joe Biden.
▶ 0:47:47They were literally running Joe Biden ads. Mr. Chairman, and attacking President Trump. Whose time is this? Well, Mr. Keading just wanted a moment to ask a question. So, I think she's responding to that. I think it's giving more time. You're welcome for giving more time to your side. Appreciate more questions. Mr. Chair, Mr. Chairman, like the gentleman, I have I have a clarification question.
▶ 0:48:07If it was the middle of November, then to the gentleman's point, it was after President Trump had won and those people were out because they were in mourning because they were so partisan that they wanted to not be there and I think he made a very good point and I thank the gentleman. We digress. Can I can I actually just respond to that really quickly? I am actually going to recognize myself for five minutes now.
▶ 0:48:32As much as it's been a fun exercise with everybody, I would make the point that, you know, radio free is not free. And I was just thinking about this in my office the other day and I was like, what's the most common media in America on the radio? I think it's iHeart Radio, iHeart Media. The entire budget for iHeart Media across the breadth of the United States of America and the globe is $90 million. That's the entire breath.
▶ 0:48:56for Radio Free Europe, $150 million, significantly more than all of iHeart Media. For Radio Free Asia, $70 million for Middle East broadcasting, $103 million. You think of all of those individually, and you compare that to iHeart Media across America, and you look at the reach of that, I just think it's an interesting note as we point out the need to downsize the the size and scope of what's going on in USAM.
▶ 0:49:21I I did want to do my questions right now because I wanted to uh touch a little bit on what Representative Perry had spoken about with that that IG report, but I am very surprised that nobody touched off on this on either side of the aisle. It it was just said by you in your opening remarks that there's a member of Congress targeted by somebody inside of of USAGM. Does does that mean you were tracking their uh their IP address and they were emailing people or they were phone call? How do you track that? What do you mean?
▶ 0:49:50Uh, well, you'd have to ask the Capitol Police. They're the ones, I believe, doing the investigation, and it's an active investigation. But from my understanding, somebody was calling a uh beloved member of Congress who's actively in Congress right now. And Republican or Democrat, I'm going to let you guess with with the bias you've seen at this agency. Just take a wild guess. Can you say the name of the individual that conducted this?
▶ 0:50:14I I think I I would prefer to withhold that and maybe we can talk um away from this because I don't want to I don't want to sabotage the investigation. Will you keep us updated on it as the investigation I will as I learn more from what I what what I've learned is that over the course of two years I believe starting into roughly October of 2023 right up until January of 25 threatening phone calls were being made to a sitting member of Congress.
▶ 0:50:39And it uh through the course of their investigation, they figured out where those calls were. I don't know how how our investigators figured that out, but they have a ways and and they found out that the phone calls uh to the sitting member of Congress, threatening calls were coming from inside of VA. Thank you for sharing. Uh we look forward, I'm sure all of us on both sides to to hearing more information about this. Uh I want to get to the questions about the the IG reports. Uh and it's something that I spoke about in my opening uh statements.
▶ 0:51:08uh individuals hired on, improperly vetted, some of these agencies asking for their own skiffs, their own secure places to view classified information and not literally always being given security clearances, but given access to secret and top secret information. It's amazing to me to think that journalists were given what we might not give allied militaries. That to me is a very interesting uh thing to think about.
▶ 0:51:32But when you say we couldn't find 500 of these individuals, you mean somewhere in the government you went to go look for who are these people that you consider suspect and now they pulled a Kaiser SOS and we can't see them anywhere. What's going on? Sadly, yes. Um about 1500 people went through this shoddy vetting which I think could have been intentionally shoddy. Um and because they knew there were problems.
▶ 0:51:59This is no fingerprints, uh, aliases, FBI fingerprints or something like that. Some of the times the FBI fingerprints were taken and not submitted. Sometimes they were not taken at all. And then they were given PIV cards, which is the access card you need to get into federal buildings and offices. It's actually a a very secure way of getting of keeping our offices and our uh departments. And somebody's hired by America, they have a direct deposit. They have, like you said, an ID card to get into a building.
▶ 0:52:28they if they're global media, they might have a passport to travel on behalf of the United States of America. The fact that you're saying these individuals cannot be found is a staggering statement. Not only can they not be found and and we've we've asked for help with other agencies to try to track them down, we even asked the Doge guys, you know, these are these are young guys who have a way of kind of looking into things and they said, "I think we can find them." They tried and tried and tried. Did they use aliases?
▶ 0:52:57I mean, were these people using fake names? Yes. Okay. When they come in, did they have social security numbers or were they foreigners? They're foreigners with no social security numbers. So, they're given just a notional number was put in on these forms. They had forms that were not filled out. I mean, this is a massive security failure in a level that uh should keep you up at night. I want to ask you one more question. And they could be working, by the way, at other I want to get to one more question before my time expired. Like you said, you were a big part of media.
▶ 0:53:26uh in in your prior roles. Did you ever have a TS or SCI clearance or did you ever get to go into a skiff as a member of the media? No. Thank you. Uh I now recognize Representative Sherless McCormack. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Miss Lake, for being here. Um, I do have major concerns about the role that VA plays, especially since, um, as recently as a few months ago, there were over 427 million people who were actually being exposed to VA.
▶ 0:53:56And VA is usually one of the best places that we can provide fact-based and objective information to audiences, especially in China and Iran, especially with the escalation that we're seeing in Iran and with lack of any kind of intelligence briefing. We want to get more information as far as what's actually going going on in Iran um and in the information we're providing them. But what I wanted to bring to your attention is a letter that we have here that I wanted to um admit into the for the record.
▶ 0:54:25And it is from Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Middle East Broadcasting Network. And what they're pretty much saying is that they tried several times to reach you. Um pass it on back. Thank you. already expressed why I haven't met with him because they're we're an active I just want to read to you first. I want to give you the opportunity. I do believe that um foreign affairs especially when it comes to national security shouldn't be a bipartis shouldn't be a partisan issue.
▶ 0:54:51I do believe that and I want to give you the opportunity to just explain because as one of my colleagues mentioned there was a letter in April where they said they haven't met with you and in this letter they're saying that um they've tried to meet with you and that Miss Lake has not spent a single minute with us or our senior team. she has not visited our office or inspected our operations. And so with this letter that we have here that clearly says it, I also want to bring to your attention where it says also that they're still open to meeting with you.
▶ 0:55:19And I know now you're saying you can't meet with them, but I want to get more clarification within the two weeks that you were in your position that you declared that it was um you said specifically that's largely incompetent, corrupt, biased, and a threat to America's national security. What were the procedures in place for you to make that determination? Specifically, how much staff was actually allocated to do that investigation to help you come to that conclusion? Well, we've got reports. We've got years of biased reporting.
▶ 0:55:47We have misused misused funds. So, could you tell me about the step or the mechanisms that you use? How much staff was provided to look into it in those two weeks to get how much staff is what how much staff like what was your mechanisms in actually going through coming to this conclusion within two weeks? Within two weeks we we I assessed all of the grant agreements and I realized that these grant agreements had been changed during the Biden administration to take out any form of transparency.
▶ 0:56:14During the first Trump administration, the grants were written, the grant agreements were written where we had transparency. we could see what was being spent. And during the Biden administration, they took all of that transparency out. And then they signed a a quarter of a billion dollar lease on a high-rise building saddling the American people with paying for it. And it wasn't even equipped to do broadcasting. Well, I'm happy you mentioned transparency because that's where I'm trying to get also. Now, when you spoke to them or if you had anybody speak to them, was there a conversation for accountability and transparency?
▶ 0:56:44I think that's what we're trying to get to. What was the mechanisms in place to come to these conclusions? And before this the lot the lawsuit was filed and these letters were sent, was there anybody who went to them to ask questions and hold them accountable? Was that It's really hard to have a communic open communication when you're being sued. Well, before that, because we have letters um back until April, this one was in June. So, before any lawsuits were filed, were there any attempts to have that?
▶ 0:57:12I believe when I first got there, they reached out to me. I'd just gotten in the building and said we'd like to meet and before I even had the chance to clear my schedule and meet with them, they launched into malicious lawsuit. So, no, we haven't met with them. If you can submit any communications that your office has had, I would greatly appreciate that. And my second question is, I do believe in lean mean machines that work well.
▶ 0:57:34What are your matrices that you have in place to determine that the leanness is actually being beneficial and that this leanness is not creating a vacuum in which now we're not able to exercise our strongest power which is our soft power in our diplomacy? It's well it's one thing if it's used properly but it hasn't been used properly. We we laid out that the CCP has more say in what editorial content we have. I only have 43 seconds. I want to know what those matrices are.
▶ 0:58:02What are the points that you're using to determine that this is actually benefiting like this machine is working versus adversely hurting us and creating a vacuum in which any other group can come in and put out propaganda and we know there's a lot of propaganda especially coming from the internet. So I want to make sure that we actually have a plan in place there's funding in place or that there are matrices in place to determine that this lean creation of a machine is actually working for us and not against us. That's what our goal is.
▶ 0:58:30We want to make sure any information going out is not anti-American, is not proc. Is there if there is a matrices, could you please provide it to us so we could be on the same page? I I I wish we we did have some say over what what information was going out, but unfortunately because of this firewall, this place could go totally rogue. This place could go and put 100% proCCP information. They could side with the regime in Iran and we couldn't do a thing about it. They could run an attack piece on you. I understand. Thank you so much. And I just want and you couldn't do anything about it. just the gentle lady's time is expired.
▶ 0:59:00I just want to take if you can allocate me just one second so I can say this because I think it's very important. The gentle lady had five minutes. Be brief. I think I thank you for being here and this is really the objective of us working together and coming together and negotiating how can we move forward. Right now we're at a critical juncture where we see more and more hostilities especially in these areas and so we want the answers to these questions so we can work together. Thank you. The gentle lady's time has really expired. Thank you. The gentleman from Texas, Mr. self.
▶ 0:59:31Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um based on the previous conversation on the security clearances, I want to go to Iran, back to Iran. Uh in June of this year, you restarted broadcast to Iran after Israel attacked them. Uh in the meantime, Musk has said that the beams are on with Starlink into Iran. industry estimates that there are 20,000 terminals and you have to have a terminal yet.
▶ 0:59:59They're still testing cell uh operating in Iran through the black market channels. So I want to compare the the two. Approximately how many Iranians currently watch the VAO VA Persian service? Um probably not that many to be honest. The ratings aren't particularly good and I don't know if you've ever had a chance to sit down and watch VA programming. It's it's it's painful to watch. Yeah. the the RF and RL have claimed that they reach millions of Iranians.
▶ 1:00:29Uh so obviously given your response um how are we going to support broadcast into Iran then is the bottom line. I'll over I'll jump over some of this because I think it's it's not going to be answerable. What format do you see going into the most constrained company uh countries? How are we going to do that?
▶ 1:00:59Because technology is changing fast. Absolutely. So, you know, we can call it radio free whatever, but how do you plan to get pro-American the American story into the most denied countries? And we'll start with Iran. You know, I think Starlink is a great option. And when a lot of people have mentioned F and and and that that's the way to go, but to be honest, they're behind the times.
▶ 1:01:24You know, they're looking at VPNs, that's and when when a dictator turns off the internet, good luck. I mean, you've got to have a way to get information in. I think that Starlink is a great option. I would like to see uh Starlink moving a little bit faster into Iran so we can get the word out. We have an opportunity right now to let the people of Iran know that we don't have a problem with the people of Iran. They're incredible people. They have been mistreated for many decades and we want to make sure that they know that America is a friend. Yeah.
▶ 1:01:53And I think uh I think the high-tech uh you need to be examining how you're going to get around the government. That's right. Uh how are you going to actually get the beam into the into the country into the denied countries. I will say though with our programming that we put out on Saturday, it was I think it was the most watch we've ever put into Farsy and it was it was through modes of of people were actually seeing it and um they were they were watching. So they're very in tune to what's happening in America right now. They are.
▶ 1:02:22But the government will then respond and cut it off if possible. So you've got to stay one step ahead of them. This is the age-old how do you stay ahead of the the enemy the adversary. Uh so what obstacles do you see in today's climate in getting into the big four Russia, China, North Korea and Iran? What obstacles do you see and how do you plan to overcome them with this new organization that you are going to be developing?
▶ 1:02:50Well, we we would like to continue to put information that is accurate to the folks in those and as I mentioned, we're doing we're reaching four languages actually pashto, dari, mandarin, fararsy and and in Cuba as well and it's difficult. You know, we're still put using radio and and radio marti in South Florida that seems to be working, but we're not reaching that many people with this. And I think we have to examine if if it's worth the money that's going into this to be not reaching that many people.
▶ 1:03:19There's other ways to reach people than like I said 1990s style television. And I think that's you can look at you can look at Twitter. You can look at social media. I mean do you think for one minute that you know some of the Democrats have said, "Oh, China's rushing in and they're they're filling the vacuum." They're not doing 1990s television. They're they're they're laughing. As a matter of fact, they're not only laughing at what we were doing. They were controlling what we were doing by having more of a say of what our content was than we did.
▶ 1:03:46They're they're seeding narratives on Tik Tok, on Twitter. If we really want to be effective in changing the narrative, it's it's narrative seating on social media. It's not 1990s style TV with a bloated staff of many people who actually hate America. That's exactly right.
▶ 1:04:03And I my whole point in this questioning is you're going to have to move fast to stay ahead of the technology because it is it is uh changing fast and I just recommend you do a scrub on how you're going to stay ahead of it because we've got to get American u information into these countries. It is a great help. It helped in under the Soviet Union and and denied countries. We've got to do that. Uh my time is expired. Thank you very much for your answers.
▶ 1:04:32I thank the gentleman the gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Staten. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Miss Lake, your actions as senior adviser are eroding American soft power around the globe. We should not be dismantling the agency that combats propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party, the Kremlin, and Thrron. Especially now, we need to be able to broadcast facts that counter Iranian state-run media spin that is essential to America's long-term interest.
▶ 1:04:57Your job is to tell the people of the world the truth about America. And because of that, there's a more fundamental issue I want to address today, and that is character. You see, Miss Lake, we have both been public figures in Arizona for a long time. I've seen you in action, including your behavior in the last two elections. And let me be clear about something. The American people cannot believe a word you say.
▶ 1:05:28You ran for governor in Arizona in 2022. You lost fair and square. Instead of conceding, you embarrassed yourself and our state by lying again and again for years, blaming everything under the sun for your loss except for your own toxic politics. You lie about that election to this very day.
▶ 1:05:55You lied about signatures on mail-in ballots not matching those on file. Proven wrong. You lied about ballots being intentionally misprinted and then rejected in Republican areas. Total BS. You lied and said hundreds of thousands of ballots were mishandled. Zero evidence. You claimed fake ballots were snuck into batches before they were counted. Come on. You repeated these lies again and again and you've said even recently, quote, I am the dulyeleed governor.
▶ 1:06:24They just stole it." Give me a break. Miss Lake, your new role requires you to tell the truth. For decades, whenever authoritarians and dictators suppress the people and claimed victory in fraudulent elections, Voice of America countered those lies. I can't imagine how people fighting for democracy today and around the world can trust someone who has so shamelessly lied about her own election. Well, the gentleman yield.
▶ 1:06:54No, I will not miss Lake to regain a semblance of your credibility. I will not yield terrorist. So, Miss Lake to regain a semblance of your credibility about evidence the time if you did not yield. I do not yield and I'd like to the time back. Miss Lake, to regain a semblance of your credibility, are you finally ready to admit you lost the 2022 Arizona election? It saddens me that you are from Arizona and you're okay with that.
▶ 1:07:24That's a yes or no question, Miss Saddens me that you are from Arizona. I guess the answer is no. Reclaiming my time, the gentleman the gentleman will suspend. will stop the clock for all present members are reminded to avoid engaging in personality uh toward the president and other members. Okay. And this is a member of the administration. So I would caution all to stay on the subjects and stay off of personalities.
▶ 1:07:53Please gentlemen may continue. Yes. And in this case these are adjudicated lies. Courts of law have determined that these are lies. These are not me saying it. You didn't just lie to the press. Are really awesome. You took those lies to court and lost again and again. Every one of your lawsuits failed. And a federal judge said that you were furthering false narratives that blamelessly undermined public trust. And you didn't just lie. You were formally sanctioned by the court.
▶ 1:08:20Miss Lake, you have been sanctioned twice for providing false information to courts. Isn't that true? Yes or no? I was brave enough to fight our uh shoddy elections and the courts have not caught up. That was a yes or no qu. I guess the answer is no. Let me reclaim my time. You have been sanctioned by both the United States District Court and the Arizona Supreme Court for quote making false factual statements to the court.
▶ 1:08:46And you were sued for defamation by a Republican election official, Steven Richer. He and his family were subjected to harassment and even death threats because of those lies. You told your supporters, richer and fellow Republican County Supervisor Bill Gates, that they quote sabotaged election day. You accused them of deliberately printing the wrong image on ballots to jam tabulators and injecting hundreds of thousands of phony ballots.
▶ 1:09:16What a joke. And here's the thing, Miss Lake. When it came down to it, you chickenened out. You refused to defend those lies in court. You decided to take a default judgment. You are an adjudicated liar and a twotime political loser in Arizona. I have one final I'd like to take down those. It's the It's the gentle I do not yield. I have one final question for you, Miss. One final question.
▶ 1:09:46The gentle lady will suspend. Please go ahead. You make You lost for governor in 2022 to Katie Hobbs. You lost even worse to Ruben Ggo for Senate in 2024. Well, Arizona has another election for governor next year. Will you do us all a favor and run it back and run for governor again? I yield. The gentle lady response some of that because that was uh complete insanity.
▶ 1:10:13I I wish I could yield back the last five minutes of my life actually. And I want to apologize to the people of Arizona that we have somebody who's representing uh the folks in in one of our great parts of the valley that doesn't care about the integrity of our election.
▶ 1:10:27So I but but you weren't here, you came in late and we're talking about USA GM today, the Agency for Global Media and how they can put out absolute abject lies and we can't control any we I we have no say over what the editorial content is and I would hope that you would not be okay with that. They could literally put out a lie about anybody here. And I know you've been the victim of that. I know you've been the victim.
▶ 1:10:51I remember the stories about you where they said you had a gay lover and those were going on. Mr. Chairman Chairman, can I I hope you honor what you just gave as a caution to everyone and I moved those words to tell you that that those kind of lies and you said those were lies.
▶ 1:11:11Those kind of lies could be broadcast today on VA and you couldn't pick up the phone, Representative Stanton, and call them and say, "Hey, you're putting out lies about me." You would not be able to do that because they would sue you for breaking the firewall. So lies are being told on Voice of America. It's inappropriate. You've been subjected to lies that you said were lies about you in the media before. And how would you like it if those lies were put on Voice of America right now? because they could do it and you couldn't do a thing about it.
▶ 1:11:41You couldn't stop it. You couldn't stop all those those lies that you said were said about you if they went on Voice of America Today. You'd have to sit and take it. Okay. I thank I thank the gentle lady and I appreciate the dialogue ruling on the chair on the member. Uh she was responding and I thought rather complimentary that in fact those were untrue and she was defending that. So that's what he says. I'll leave it as as as that. I think Mr. Stanton would agree that those were untrue statements and she said so.
▶ 1:12:09U I will now recognize myself for five minutes. Mr. Chairman, I apologize. Uh I wasn't concerned at all what she was saying. My concern is that the leader of this agency which is supposed to disseminate truth about the United States is an adjudicated liar. That's not an exaggeration. That's not okay. The gentle the gentleman made that point quite clearly said that recognizing myself for five minutes. unanimous consent.
▶ 1:12:35Twice so far, the chair prior to you had said there was no documentation for requests of unanimous consent that these be placed in the record. These are requests for meetings that have not been answered. Thank you. Could I see the date on those? I mean, were the Okay. We'll we'll be able to make the record complete. Um and you'll be allowed to give the other half of these emails.
▶ 1:13:02For the record, we agree with unanimous consent that these emails be entered and considered factual with the recognition that they be verified by the agency. Uh I'll now recognize myself and I'll I'll be brief in saying if everyone on the deis had the accusations of their opponents or even quite frankly sometimes the legal battles um all of us would have a bad day here.
▶ 1:13:30uh that is part of politics, but we're not here to discuss politics today. We're here to discuss the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars and a question of whether or not it was best spent on behalf of the American people. You said earlier that uh that in fact there were 500 people unaccounted for who received payment in money at the taxpayers's expense. Is that correct? They did while they were employed and then they left the agency and we can't track them down. Okay.
▶ 1:14:00And without speculating per se, but but just factually, can you verify that those people since there's no fingerprints, no pictures, can you verify that these people existed and those were true identities? True identities? I don't know. I we can't Can you verify that they came to work every day and performed duties? I I don't have that information.
▶ 1:14:25So it is certainly possible that this independent third party agency that you gave money that previously were giving money to in fact had ghost employees or employees that the money ended up being conduited to other people. Is that possible? It's possible. And so for the on behalf of this committee and the American people, an audit is appropriate, isn't it? I definitely believe it is and we're in the process of doing an audit right now. Okay.
▶ 1:14:53And if you fail to get the cooperation in the audit, please come back to the committee because I think you'll you'll see that we're willing to take further steps to support that need for an audit. We have been uh stonewalled in the audit. The the uh grantees radio for Europe, Radio for Asia, Middle East broadcasting, and I've mentioned F have not wanted to give us any information. Stonewalled, prevented it.
▶ 1:15:15We started this uh weeks ago and as I said just finally last night on the eve of this hearing they finally said okay you can come in and start looking at our books. We get similar promises on our subpoenas and some of the committees here. Let me let me ask a differing question. Um this money to a third party agency over which you have arguably little control based on the history. Uh do you give money to Al Jazera? No.
▶ 1:15:44Do you give money to Pravda, which is Russian for the word truth? No. Okay. Why don't you? Uh, obviously because those are propaganda uh machines of in many cases our enemy because they're adverse to the interest of the United States of America.
▶ 1:16:00So by definition, whatever becomes the new hopefully consolidated and concise and effective organization in fact should do one thing which is promote the legitimate interest of the United States including the the truth as we see it. Absolutely. That's what we should be doing. That's what we should be have been doing and we haven't been doing it well.
▶ 1:16:26And I'm going to work really hard to make sure that whatever we salvage from this, it it's telling America's story. We have an incredible story to tell and especially right now as we're working for peace around the globe with a president like Donald Trump.
▶ 1:16:40And speaking of peace around the globe, uh you're familiar with the the controversy that Chairman Mast had with the agencies when he was subcommittee chairman and all he really wanted was them to explain why they wouldn't say Hamas terrorist after the October 7th attack and instead used words more quote moderate to the the the base.
▶ 1:17:04Uh can you assure us that in the future that if the president of the United States at that time Joe Biden, the secretary of state, etc. have a an aligned policy and statement which is supported by the Congress that in fact the messaging would be the messaging of the American people through its representatives and not some independent third idea of of what you should say to be moderate.
▶ 1:17:30Well, Congressman, I wish I could assure you of that, but unfortunately with this editorial uh firewall, it's impossible for us to have any say over the content, which is in closing, because this committee is going through a structural reform of all of the State Department and its agencies, which will include yours. Mhm.
▶ 1:17:50Is it fair to say that going forward we should in fact have a single point of contact responsible and responsive accountable and auditable and that in fact it should be one in which there is at least to the oversight of Congress and the administration verifiable that these people are employed and working to the interest for which they have been hired. I'm afraid we're never going to find those 500 people. They've escaped.
▶ 1:18:18I'm talking about going forward. Can we can we reauthorize under the State Department reauthorization an organization that you can believe in whether it's within the State Department or not? Can we do so? And do you see that is the goal for which President Donald Trump gave you the responsibility to do and you're working on? Yes.
▶ 1:18:39and and we I believe it it needs to be rolled into the State Department because President Trump has asked that we uh delete this agency and so whatever we can salvage that's worthwhile should be brought under the Department of State under the public diplomacy arm of the Department of State. I look forward to and this committee looks forward to working with you through the reauthorization process to find a win-win that some of the members on both sides have talked about today. With that, it's my pleasure to recognize my colleague, the gentleman from California, Mr. Costa.
▶ 1:19:08Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Um, obviously we're in a discussion here where there's a lot of agreement to disagree and um I happen to think that u the efforts um that uh Voice of America and its uh international broadcasting and its expansion post World War II along with the efforts to deal with uh Cuba broadcasting radio and TV.
▶ 1:19:35There's a whole list of I think successes over uh the postworld war um efforts that we've been engaged in uh with the the communist countries uh in which we have been able to tell the real story about America. Now if you want to make modifications reforms I think this committee is an appropriate place to do that oversight.
▶ 1:20:00Having said that, um I I'd like to specify a particular area that deals with uh uh Armenia and the voice of Armenia. Uh do you do you happen to know Miss Lake? Uh I I come from the land of William Soyan and um I assume you know what language the uh Armenian uh people of Armenia speak. I've actually heard it. It's a beautiful language. I I can't name it. Can you please tell me? Yeah, it's Armenia. Uh the uh trick question.
▶ 1:20:30The story of Armenian language is uh and the voice of Armenia was so that the people of Armenia would understand who were under the oppression of of the Soviet Union what America stood for and what our values stood for. How many people uh work at the Voice of America on their Armenian services? Do you know? Right now it's not a statutory statutoily required uh language.
▶ 1:20:54So, we do not have um we will not be having Let me tell you, cuz you you had all these cuts that I don't think are surgical. They've been done with a um I think uh some sort of um um disregard for you have five people. You had five people, one full-time staffer and four contractors. They've all been placed on leave since March of this year.
▶ 1:21:16Um did uh you or uh former uh fellow the Elon Musk uh talk to anyone about the voice of America's Armenian service before these cuts were made. We are bringing the agency to statutory minimum and Armenian language is not in the statutory minimum. If you'd like it to be then I suggest you write legislation and put it in legislation. What analysis was done to assess the performance of the services before the cuts were made?
▶ 1:21:45We decided to listen to the person who's in charge of the executive branch of the government and that person's name is President Donald J. Trump. I I suspect that maybe the president's not sure about the language that the Armenian people speak, but that be as as it may, of the Voice of America's own data showed that the Armenian language reached well over one-third of Armenia's adult population and ranks second in market penetration.
▶ 1:22:13Uh the voice of America brief notes said that service unique role in countering the Russian Russian disinformation and explaining US policy to Armenians at the moment when Yuravan is trying to move out of Moscow's orbit. There are a lot of reasons why I think this is important um because of the Russian disinformation. Do you believe that Russia's been engaged in disinformation with Armenia or other countries on Eastern Europe? Obviously, you have a soft spot in your heart for Armenia.
▶ 1:22:43I think the people of Armenia are incredible. Um, but we're working to rightsize this agency and the Armenian language is not one of the statuto, but there's there's got to be a cause and a reason for uh your changes here and I I'm trying to find out what they are. How many people do you think we should hire in the Armenian language service? Well, what I think we should do is recognize the fact that Russia is attempting through misinformation to keep uh Armenia in their orbit.
▶ 1:23:13Um do you believe that Russia uh is the aggressor in the war in Ukraine? You know what? It's interesting that you really are concerned about Russia because um VA hired Russian spies and I think that I didn't hear any complaints coming from from you that I I asked you a question. And do you believe Russia is an adversary of the United States? Uh I think they are are one of our adversaries. Yes. Okay.
▶ 1:23:40And why would we want to cut our strategy just by dismissing staff who are countering Russian propaganda uh to potential partners of the United States. I mean the reason is is I mean the focus today is on Iran. Okay. Tomorrow it could be Armenia. Tomorrow it could be Armenia. Uh, and I think that when you put the voice of America's Persian service on leave only to call them back after when Israel and we started trading missile strikes.
▶ 1:24:10Uh, I mean, isn't that a tacid admission that uh there were need for people to be on duty to to provide that information, the voice of Iran? I I've worked in newsrooms. You you surge on stories when you need to surge. We have always had uh uh the Farsy language as one of our statutory languages and we've been covering it. Well, my time is break. I I think that you got to look more carefully at how you reorganize uh this effort and more to be determined.
▶ 1:24:41Okay, gentlemen's time has expired. Uh with that, uh Miss Lake, I will be recognizing myself. Uh uh I recently held a subcommittee hearing on the State Department censorship industrial complex which was previously in the business of silencing American voices overseas and at home. Thanks to a thorough investigation and review by Congress and and the Foreign Affairs Committee previously and President Trump's leadership, uh that bureau is no more.
▶ 1:25:11Uh building off of that work here today, you've spoken extensively about the importance of telling America's story and standing up to censorship. In your view, what should be the mission of the US Agency for Global Media going forward? Moreover, uh how can we ensure its position to effectively promote American values and counter propaganda from authoritarian regimes like the like the Chinese Communist Party? Well, we definitely need to bring some huge changes to this agency.
▶ 1:25:39I I I believe that the agency should be eliminated and then we should pull out the things that are of value and and VA, Office of Cuba Broadcasting. We need to look at what works and what works is telling America's story abroad. What doesn't work is being anti-American, telling the CCP propaganda abroad on our airwaves. And we need to modernize. I I don't think uh doing 1990s television is effective anymore. people just aren't that's not where they're getting their information.
▶ 1:26:09What do you think some of the most important stories and tenants about America that need to be told that haven't been getting told? I I think just the the history of this country and what this country is about, our freedoms, our liberties, our bill of rights, maybe the founding of our country. The founding of our country. Yeah. And especially this year with 250 years. That's that would seem to me a pretty big story to tell. I mean that's that's a that's one of the things that's a a something that the rest of the world's going to pay attention to.
▶ 1:26:37And one of the things that's statutoily required is to talk about all 50 states including including the beautiful parts of our country. All 50 states and tourism. Those are things that are actually in the I'm sure you mean Michigan. Michigan's beautiful. One of one of my favorite states. I'm a Midwesterner. I was born there. Uh I was born in in the Midwest. Um so we haven't been doing that and we're trying to do what's statutoily required. Unfortunately, they've gotten into the habit of telling of of hiring foreigners to tell America's story.
▶ 1:27:05And if you were born in another country, you don't know our history. You don't know our culture. In many cases, you don't know our language. How do you effectively tell America's story? That's that's the right question to be uh to be asking. And now we're looking for that solution of how to how to do that. Um I you know I think there's growing consensus that America needs to do more to push back against authoritarian uh propaganda and censorship around the world particularly from communist China but other places as well. I I have an example a specific example from southwest Michigan.
▶ 1:27:35I I happen to represent a significant Burmese population uh in my district. Uh many of whom with family and friends still uh subjected to the authoritarian uh military ha's role in uh in in Burma and their rule there.
▶ 1:27:51Uh many of these people have relied on Voice of America Burmese service uh to expose the malign activities of the CCP uh in its uh manipulation of the Burmese military ha and oftentimes drive a more uh profound skepticism of Beijing's uh intentions. Um we were just having a dialogue with my colleague about the statutory languages and that kind of thing.
▶ 1:28:16Would it make sense to have flexibility to say, "Okay, let's surge in an area you were talking about in the newsroom surges to where the information is." Wouldn't it make sense to have some flexibility to say, "Okay, you know what? Uh, you know, Burma is a place that we need to be paying attention to and so and move some of those uh move some of those assets around." Absolutely.
▶ 1:28:37But I but I'm curious, you know, what role do you see organizations like US uh AGM and you were just talking about possibly eliminating them playing in the global information fight? What reforms uh do you prioritize to ensure that we're winning the battle? That's the most important thing. Well, for starters, I'm going to prioritize making sure that we're getting out information that is not anti-American. That would be very disastrous, and we've done that in the past, and we don't want to do that anymore, and I'm going to work to make sure that's not happening. Um, but you're right, we we need to search.
▶ 1:29:06There's no expiration date on anything in the government. You know, if if we are working to see to it that people of an oppressed nation are getting information to know there are options out there to know that there's a better way and then when that nation is no longer being oppressed, we continue to operate there. It just doesn't make sense. But what they've done over the years, 84 years, is expand, expand, expand, collecting more languages, covering more languages that we don't necessarily have to be covering.
▶ 1:29:33You know, one of our um success stories is Office of Cuba Broadcasting, broadcasting directly into Cuba uh and getting into the ears and the hearts of the people of Cuba. But there will come a day where I believe there will be freedom for the people of Cuba. And then do we need to still continue to broadcast in? That's a question that needs to be asked. So, we should have expiration dates when when it's mission accomplished. It doesn't mean we continue to pour tens of millions of dollars more into it. I appreciate that. My time has expired.
▶ 1:30:01Uh with that, uh the chair recognizes, uh Miss Gyipal from, uh Washington for 5 minutes. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for being here, Miss Lake. The US Agency for Global Media is tasked with providing unbiased news worldwide to over 427 million listeners, many of whom live in countries without freedom of press or freedom of the speech. And it is your job to promote the American ideals of freedom and democracy.
▶ 1:30:29So, I wanted to start just by confirming, do you support uh democracy or authoritarianism? I think that's pretty obvious. I support freedom and democracy. Democracy. Great. Um, would you agree that accepting the results of a fair and free election are critical to a functioning democracy? Would you agree that standing up for a cancer survivor would have been the nice thing to do? Miss Lake, this is my time. Okay.
▶ 1:30:55Would you accept that accepting the results of a free and fair election are critical to a functioning democracy? It's a yes or no question. Do you think it's essential for democracy to have a free and fair election? We need free and fair elections. Free and fair election. Great. Thank you so much. Um and yet you have to this day refused to acknowledge that President Trump lost the 2020 election.
▶ 1:31:19something that even members of President Trump's own justice department have admitted and multiple lawsuits have shown and we heard my colleague from Arizona uh talk about what happened in Arizona. So, it concerns me that you are now tasked with this responsibility of ensuring democracy uh around the world when you won't even accept a free and fair election.
▶ 1:31:42I'm also concerned by your ability to promote the American ideals of freedom and democracy given your record uh defending and praising Let's look at Hungary. You previously stated that Hungary is quote doing it right and that Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban was quote the greatest in America, greatest in caps and quote and equal to President Trump. Do you stand by those statements?
▶ 1:32:10I think um that Victor Orban has done a very good job at protecting his people and protecting the Hungarian culture and I think I think if you ask people in Europe other parts of Europe here is very simple they would be wishing that their leaders stood up for Orban the greatest in Europe. Yes or no? I think he's done the best job in Europe. Yes. Okay.
▶ 1:32:29And so even Secretary Rubio acknowledged in a 2019 letter that under Orban, Hungary took a downward democratic trajectory and yet you insist that Hungary is doing it right. I want to cover some of the policies that Mr. Orban is responsible for. Um would you consider banning LGBTQ pride parades like Victor Orban has done in Hungary is doing it right? Recognizing that pride parades are protected under the First Amendment. What does this have to do with US agents?
▶ 1:32:59I'm asking you whether you support the policies of dictators and authoritarians or whether you support democracy. You have said that Victor Orban is the greatest in Europe. So, do you think that Victor Orban is doing it right when he bans pride parades? I think Victor Orban has put the people of his country first. So, the answer is yes. You think it's appropriate that he's banning pride parades and using facial recognition technology to to actually profile people that go to those parades?
▶ 1:33:26How about uh the fact that Orban and his party control 80% of Hungary's media market? Are we talking about Hungary? Yes, we are. Because guess what? Your agency actually is responsible for other countries ally. Can I remind you that Hungary is an ally of America? Oh, and so you think that it's okay that Victor Orban, the greatest in Europe, according to you, controls 80% of Hungary's media market.
▶ 1:33:54Is that is that level free and fair reporting? I I don't you you obviously don't like our our ally Hungary. I think that I'm asking you for appropriate. Miss Lake, it is my time. I'm asking you if it is appropriate that a country Victor Orban's uh government controls 80% of Hungary's media market. It's just a yes or no. Do you think that's okay? Think he's the greatest of all time? Do you have an opinion on what Victor Orban is doing in Hungary?
▶ 1:34:23up for debate that has been documented by numerous organizations. Now, can you tell me where have you not only have Excuse me, Miss Lake, I'm sorry to remind you, you are not a governor. You're not even a candidate for governor. You're here and this is my time. Not only have you supported dictators that have supported policies that erode democracy, you also spread claims promoted by Russian state media that the Pentagon was funding bioweapon labs in Ukraine.
▶ 1:34:51These claims have been proven resoundingly false even by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Do you still stand by that prior statement? Look, I know that many members of Congress care more about funding Ukraine. I stand by that statement which is clearly a lie. I know that I know that you you are responsible for an agency that is supposed to promote truth and yet over and over again you are promoting dictators and authoritarians and lies.
▶ 1:35:18So I am asking you if you stand by the statement that you made that was promoted by Russian state media that the Pentagon was funding boweapon labs in Ukraine proven false by Marco Rubio. Do you stand by that statement? I understand you're trying to get a fundraising video here. Okay. Well, you clearly don't understand that before Congress. Mr. Chairman, I just want to say you had more than enough time. I gave you a few extra seconds and your time has expired.
▶ 1:35:46Unfortunately, and I now recognize Representative Davidson is not responding. Can I have just one second to respond because um it who who is going to be speaking? Representative Davidson is next. Oh, may I have just one second to respond to that? Obviously, from some of the questions we're hearing from the Democrats, they care more about a lot of other countries than America. And we've seen that in their votes with the money they voted uh to to spend in Ukraine killing people. Thankfully, we have a president and Donald J. Trump who's going to help bring peace. Maybe we could have regular order, Mr.
▶ 1:36:16Chairman. Seems pretty regular to me. Representative Davidson is recognized. Uh, thank you, Chairman. Thanks for having this hearing. Um, Miss Lake, I want to let you know that Voice of America is just such an important uh part of Ohio's history.
▶ 1:36:31In Westchester, Ohio, we have Voice of America Park, and it recognizes the Voice of America Bethany Relay Station, which served as a key anchor to get the message uh that Voice of America was broadcasting, whether to Europe or South America, and you know, Crosley Broadcasting's there. So, I'd invite you and your team to come to Westchester, Ohio at some point, and uh tour the museum, highlight the history of the Voice of America in Ohio.
▶ 1:36:56You know, I think the values that that Voice of America you know, put into action really and made known America's values are part of the story of victory in the cold war. And in Munich earlier this year, Vice President Vance gave a speech expressing his fear that in Europe, these freedoms are under attack. the things that we fought to uh protect Europe from.
▶ 1:37:22Uh we now see speaking of sanctu I mean we have people claiming asylum from the UK, from Germany and from Poland in Hungary today. So they are protecting civil liberties for people that are being put in jail for memes in places like Germany and England.
▶ 1:37:39So, you know, you looking at widespread censorship online, uh you look at the values that seem under attack by the, you know, digital regulation in the European Union, Voice of American could still play uh an important role in the world.
▶ 1:38:00Um so unfortunately we've seen um our institutions that help defend democracy being wielded in some ways to undermine it even within various administrations. So I think your um reshaping of this institution is incredibly important. Unfortunately revelations from Voice of America show the US is not immune from actions to shape uh speech. A new iron curtain is falling over the west under the guise of censorship.
▶ 1:38:30Um if you have unapproved views on migration, vaccines or election results or you know any number of things your freedoms can be taken away uh because the woke religion has its own heresy code. People are seeking to use components of our own government to enforce their political ideology. So Miss Lake, can you uh expand further on the bias which has uh USA uh GM has operated over the years? I would love to. I mean, in actually I wish I didn't have to.
▶ 1:38:59I wish that I could report to you that there was no bias, but there's been a lot of bias. And I've got just a few headlines here. This one says, "Voice of America slants news delays Biden's debate stumble story." Voice of America election news went from 1996 to 2020 went from balance to bias. Will Voice of America campaign video that they ran for Biden help him win Michigan? Why is Voice of America getting involved in politics? How about this one?
▶ 1:39:26Voice of America director Amanda Bennett resigned amid accusations of failing to stop China and Iran propaganda in VA programs. And guess what? She was then hired back by Joe Biden to run the agency and nearly ran it into the ground. She's the one responsible for a quarter of a billion dollar 15-year lease in a swanky high-rise that they were going to put VA in had I not stopped it. And this high-rise isn't even equipped to do broadcasting.
▶ 1:39:53that was going to cost the American taxpayer another hundred million at least. When are we going to start putting the American people first? Yeah, thanks for highlighting that. You know, America's resources should advance America's interest and thanks for being a good custodian of that.
▶ 1:40:07You know, reading in background for this, I was stunned to find that Voice of America's former associate editor for newsstanders, Carol Gunsburg, uh directed staff to quote, "Avoid calling Hamas and its members terrorists in quotes." Why do you think Voice of America was hesitant to call Hamas and its members terrorists? Uh because you know as as I've mentioned there is there's a true bias going on.
▶ 1:40:33They are um they're pushing an agenda and they in many cases are uh opposed to whatever the policy of America is and they have completely gone off the rails and we need to get them back on the rails and that's what we're doing. we're reducing the size of this and in many ways maybe the people reporting were actually okay with a terrorist attack like that. Yeah. Thanks for highlighting the concern on security risks.
▶ 1:40:58I mean in your testimony you discussed how many individuals have granted access to secure government facilities or IT systems via false social security numbers or other false credentials. It's especially disorienting to hear about large numbers of staff receiving clearances and access to sensitive material when House of Representatives can't even get uh clearances for some of our staff members. What steps are you taking to clean up the clearance rosters?
▶ 1:41:23Well, right now we have a a a director of security who's doing an incredible job trying to clean up the mess. So, one of the things we're doing is reducing the number of people who have security clearances. I think one of the members said, "Why why does a reporter need a security clearance?" I think it was the chairman who said that and we went through and we are starting to weed out and pair down that list. We took all of the presidents of the various grantees. Those are not government employees.
▶ 1:41:49They all had top secret clearances and we re revoked that and they cried like crazy when we did it. But there's no reason to have that. RFA radioee Asia asked our security director if we would build a skiff in their facility. Why on earth would they need a skiff? So, we're we're doing everything we can to try to get things back under control, but I think President Trump has the right idea. We need to eliminate this agency, find what's salvageable, and move it over to the Department of State. Thank you so much for that clarity.
▶ 1:42:18And, you know, certainly we're not going to broadcast classified information. So, thank you for safeguarding it. Chair now recognizes uh Representative Volky. Thank Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to Chairman, Ranking Member Meeks, for convening this hearing. Thank you, Miss Lake, for joining us today.
▶ 1:42:35Uh I am a new member on this committee but in just the fast past few months I've seen how important in person uh the Voice of America Radio Free Europe and other USAGM outlets are to Americans and to our allies. It's vital to diplomacy. It connects and informs people as we seek to promote promote our democracy and our freedom around the world.
▶ 1:42:59Indeed, VA and USAGM outlets are American soft power weapons and central to the mission of an international broadcasting agency is truth and is balance. What we share with the world should be rooted in fact so that America maintains its credibility on the world stage. I'm sharing these concerns because I recently know um through my travel and in some countries that US AGM is the sole source of credible information.
▶ 1:43:28I was just in Taiwan where government officials and NOS's made it clear radio Free Asia is an indispensable tool against PRC misinformation and aggression. And to that end, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to enter two articles into the record. One from Politico, Moscow and Beijing rejoicing at looming death of Radio Free Europe, VA, and another one from the Washington Post. Chinese propaganda surges as the US defunds radioree Asia. Without objection.
▶ 1:43:58Thank you, Miss Lake. I have just a few questions today. I hope the first one is pretty simple. Uh, yes or no. Do you believe in the mission of USAGM and its grantees are important? It's really like the yes or no answer. I think that's a pretty easy one, but I I I believe in the mission. I wish that it were followed. Okay. And I and I appreciate that.
▶ 1:44:17Um but worry that as my colleagues have shared, executing on that mission is very difficult with an administration that is gutting um our only way in some parts of the world of sharing the most um in the most oppressive of media markets um information that needs to be shared. Um, media reports, for example, indicated that VA broadcasts just 75 minutes of content to its audience in Iran over the past few days, knowing that we used to broadcast 247.
▶ 1:44:48And I know that you mentioned that there's not a huge audience. Uh, but it's come to my attention that VA's Persian audience has actually doubled in the past four years. as of June 2023, in the middle of that growth, it was measured that the outlet was covering almost 16% of all adult Iranians.
▶ 1:45:05So, um I just would say as we're facing a very unsettled world, I think having information um is really important and and so I think that is perhaps why we're seeing as in the articles I shared that our adversaries are in fact celebrating uh this retreat this retrenchment from um our involvement. I'd like to read an article. You know, I can can I say something will about that? I think I'll give you an opportunity might it's I'm happy to give you an opportunity.
▶ 1:45:34Uh, quote, "The so-called beacon of freedom, VA, has now been discarded by its own government like a dirty rag." This is from the Chinese Communist Party's owned Global Times um paper. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Na Ning Ma Ning seems to agree with your characterization of VA as quote a lie factory that stirs up conflict with a notorious track record in their China coverage.
▶ 1:46:01I guess my question to you is it concerning or should it be concerning to us as members of this committee that you share the same opinion as a Chinese communist government spokesperson? The Chinese government if they are upset about uh having less coverage, it's because they were in control of a lot of our coverage. The CCP, and I think you came in late, actually No, ma'am. I've been here the entire time. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't notice.
▶ 1:46:24Um, the CCP has more control over what we put out editorially than people who are management at the agency. Do you think that's okay? No, I think we should be putting out truthful information and sometimes you see here and we should go after that and sometimes but what I do is what is concerning to me failing to solve if you and you've already said that your goal ultimately is to move this agency and its independence which is truly a core pillar of
▶ 1:46:54journalism. As someone who is in journalism having that independence is absolutely important. There's no other way that we're going to have be a credible source to the world if other governments and other members of countries see what we're doing. I mean, first of all, we're not communicating, but when we do, they have to know that the information is real, it's authentic, and it's actually advancing American interest. I very much look forward to working with my colleagues on the committee here so that we can make sure the information is truthful, it is factual, and that it advances American interests.
▶ 1:47:24you have my commitment to work with you on that, but we have to make sure that we're actually promoting those interests through supporting this. Hopefully, we can root out the Russian, Chinese, Iranian propaganda that has been prevalent on our airwaves at VA and we're going to work to do that. Chair now recognizes Representative Bar. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 1:47:45Miss Lake, uh I'm sorry you've had to endure these ad hominemm attacks which are clearly designed to shift focus away from the patriotic work uh that you're doing to honor American hardworking American taxpayers and make sure not only that you're cleaning out the corruption and frankly the rot within this agency, but actually advancing American national security as opposed to actively undermining it. That's right.
▶ 1:48:11And uh to my colleague who just asked you about Beijing and and and Beijing rejoicing, what the reason why Beijing uh needs to be a focus of this conversation is is we need to be asking the question, I think you just did, why is the Chinese Communist Party in charge of VA? Why are they running VA?
▶ 1:48:32Um, past leadership of the VA Mandarin Language Service conducted annual meetings with the Chinese embassy in Washington DC, allowing Chinese embassy officials to opine and make suggestions on VA Mandarin language service content. Chinese Communist Party officials have also reached out to VA hosts to convince them to be more supportive of the Communist regime, and the outcomes have actually rewarded the CCP's efforts.
▶ 1:49:00VA's Mandarin language service personalities have hosted events at the Chinese embassy and one of VA's television editors even publicly pledged his allegiance to the People's Republic of China at a Chinese embassy event. Is this correct? This is correct. This is correct. And whistleblowers in the agency in in the Mandarin service who tried to stop that were fired or got so burned out trying to stop it they left the job.
▶ 1:49:27So VA also allowed communist Vietnamese and communist Chinese embassies in Washington DC to pressure them into removing videos, cutting short live interviews, or changing story angles so that the coverage was more supportive of the communist governments of Hanoi and Beijing. Is this the voice of America or is this the voice of Beijing? Some have said it's the voice of anti-America. Yeah.
▶ 1:49:57So, I think that your efforts to reform the agency are vital to American national security. Uh why are we allowing the CCP to run the VA newsroom while the US taxpayer is on the hook for this? Um are any of these VA employees who acted on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, are they still Uh it's possible. We're we're working to try to figure that out.
▶ 1:50:25But unfortunately, when you do a reduction in force, it's called a riff. And we are reducing the uh number of people who work at Voice of America. You can't uh typical government fashion, you can't say, "Hey, we'd like to keep certain people because they are people who are uh performing well and doing a good job." You can't do that in the government. You just remove positions. And so we are uh shedding some of the positions, making the force lean and mean and ready to operate. And we can surge when a big story breaks, we can surge.
▶ 1:50:56We've got additional funding to do that by pulling back some of the funding from the grantees. We have about $17.3 million. So when we have to surge to cover something that's breaking, we can do that. So Dan Robinson, a 34 year veteran of VA and a former White House correspondents, here's what he here's what he wrote.
▶ 1:51:14I have monitored the AY's bureaucracy along with many of its reporters and concluded that it has essentially become a hubris-filled rogue operation often reflecting leftist bias aligned with partisan national media. It has sought to avoid accountability for violations of journalistic standards and mismanagement. Uh we've got great examples of this uh even in the even in the Oval Office. Former VA associate editor Carol uh Gruinsburg directed staff to quote avoid calling Hamas and its members terrorists.
▶ 1:51:46Again, this is not the voice of America. This is the voice of America's enemies. And I thank you for trying to clean up the mess. And and and last question. You you've heard a lot of language like a vacuum and gutting and dismantling. I want you uh Miss Lake to to clear the record once and for all in this final question. address the hysteria from the administration's critics here and clarify what is the administration's objective here.
▶ 1:52:10Is it to end US international broadcasting or is the goal to reform the agency so that actually is the voice of America and not the voice against America? I believe that the goal of the administration is to reform the agency but to eliminate to to reform uh our messaging but to eliminate a corrupt agency. We don't need USAGM to get a message out, a positive pro-America message out. We can do this through other methods.
▶ 1:52:38Well, deep state bias is one thing. Mismanagement, corruption is one thing, but when you when you are actively undermining American national security, this agency needs massive reform and I thank you for leading it. Thank you. Yield back. Chair now recognizes Representative Kum Logger Dove. Thank you, Mr. chair and uh ranking member. And thank you, Miss Lake, for joining us today.
▶ 1:53:03Um I'm deeply concerned uh that what the Trump administration is doing to VA and all of the independent broadcast networks is harming the United States and serving our adversaries. It seems like everyone is sort of saying the same thing even though they're um using different examples. So Miss Lake, this is a easy question.
▶ 1:53:30Is it your goal to advance US interests or the interests of our adversaries? We want to make sure we are advancing US interests. Great. Thank you. And earlier um because I too have been here uh there were question was asked of you uh about Russia invading Ukraine and if Russia was an adversary and you answered that question, but I would like it if you could just answer it again. Do you believe that Russia is one of our adversaries? Yes. Okay.
▶ 1:54:00Thank you. Um I do too. So when Trump decided to gut USA GM, the head of Russia Today, the Kremlin state controlled news broadcaster actually said, quote, "Today is a holiday for me and my colleagues at RT and Sputnik.
▶ 1:54:19This is an awesome decision by Trump." So, Miss Lake, why do you think the head of Russia Today would say this is an awesome decision by Trump? I'm really disturbed that we were spreading Russian propaganda and hiring Russian spies at Voice of America. Have you been ever thought about that? Well, allegedly there is a Russian operative in the White House Office of Personnel. But you're not asking me questions. I'm asking you questions.
▶ 1:54:46The question is, why do you think the head of Russia today would say this is an awesome decision by Trump? I don't know. I think um but at least you're you're honest when you say you don't know. Um I think that the answer is obvious and that crippling voice of America actually allows Russia today to spread propaganda without any opposition. And in fact, the PRC had a similar response.
▶ 1:55:16And in earlier lines of questioning, um, people suggested that the CCP was running VA. You sort of inferred that they have more control over VA. Beijing was running the VA, had people in there.
▶ 1:55:32So, the Global Times, a Chinese state media outlet that spread CCP talking points, also celebrated your actions and called VA quote a lie factory, pointing to their reports on human rights abuses in Xing Jang. And the Global Times also called VA quote thoroughly biased propaganda poison. I feel like I have also heard that phrase used by members uh from uh across the aisle, my colleagues.
▶ 1:56:03And that line also could have been pulled right out of your opening statement. So, Miss Lake, do you think that VA's reporting on China's genocide against the Weaguers is a lie? You know, there's been some good reporting at VA. I'm not saying all of it has been bad, but the any time we're doing Chinese propaganda, when VA decided to do a twominute Chinese propaganda video and produce it, I got a problem with that.
▶ 1:56:31And I have a feeling that the men and women across this country do something that many of our allies also care about. And we know China's position on the Weaguers. And so I think it's important that we report on that and we do so in a true and factual basis.
▶ 1:56:49And I also think it's important to say that if you are dismantling, if you are crippling, even if you're arbitrarily shrinking without a plan because we we've heard you answer questions, but we have not been shared any kind of plan that dismantling an agency that counters PRC propaganda and allowing it to go unchecked is counter propaganda from the CCP here. If we're not here, spreads propaganda from the CCP.
▶ 1:57:18If we're not here, then we cannot counter it. And I know you have talked about what just happened with Iran, how everybody got put on administrative leave and then the strikes happened and then you asked people to come back because I guess somebody had a WTF moment. But then right after that there was a reduction in force which you just alluded to to permanently eradicate many of their jobs.
▶ 1:57:42And so I am just saying that we have to have folks in place to respond to crisis immediate emergent on the horizon. And we can't do it with only two people in an office using a smartphone waiting to get direction from a security adviser who hasn't even been confirmed or brought up for confirmation from the Senate. And with that, I yield back. Gentle lady's time is expired.
▶ 1:58:07I can say for myself, I appreciate that a lot in journalism are freelance journalists and they're not constantly on the payroll. I think it's a good model that the US government should look at when are they needed and when are they not. Chair now recognizes Representative Baird. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Miss Lake. We really appreciate what you're trying to do in the reform and and really appreciate you being here.
▶ 1:58:29you know my uh question focus on um I know some of my colleagues and the public observers are really concerned about what's happening in the USAGM and are and unhappy about what seems to be reducing its capacity to communicate with foreign national populations around the world uh of those you know Chinese, North Koreans, Cubans, Venezuelans, Russians and Iranians.
▶ 1:58:54Um they further claim that our reduction in withdrawal from the broadcasting spaces will create a vacuum that these other governments many of which are communist governments uh will be happy to fill. I'm not sure that I agree with that at all. But I would ask you uh how would you respond to these critics for your current efforts to consolidate broadcasting We we can't continue to spend money the way we have in the federal government.
▶ 1:59:22There have to be ways that we can reduce the spending. And President Trump has determined that this is an agency that we can reduce the spending. We don't need to be broadcasting in all these languages. We need to be more nimble and focus on areas where the US government and where the United States needs to get a message out to people. And I think we can do a better job at it when we're nimble and smaller.
▶ 1:59:44And we we have proof of that because our Persian team that that came to work when the president when the bombs dropped on Saturday and the president did his address, we sprung into action. We got the message out and they said in a way it was easier to do that because it wasn't such a big group. I understand that and that makes it makes it more nimble and you said that in earlier comments and so uh that's very much appreciated.
▶ 2:00:10So, do you think the United States uh needs to fund international broadcasting operations into all of these and other countries uh in order to influence those populations? Do we have do you think we have the ability to influence populations and getting that information to those populations is worthwhile? I I think we have the ability information is uh can be used to influence people in many different forms whether it be uh through social media and and governments are doing this.
▶ 2:00:39They're they're seeding narratives on social media. It's how things are done. China's doing it. Russia's doing it. America's doing it. The the question is, do we need to spend the money that we are spending? Do we need to spend nearly a billion dollars? Should we be spending hard-earned tax dollars uh supporting and sponsoring a Afghan cricket team? Should we be putting a $100,000 towards sponsoring an Afghan cricket team? Is that the best use of the money? Is that what we're supposed to do with it? Are we supposed to be telling America's story abroad?
▶ 2:01:10There's so much misuse of of public dollars in this agency that it needs to be scrapped and we need to salvage what we can, but it's really like a rotten piece of fish and you're looking at it and you're saying, is there anything we can pull out of here and eat? And it's it's best to just scrap the whole thing and start over. And I think that's the the way we should go forward. That's my personal opinion. You know, you touched on something that's dear to my heart.
▶ 2:01:33Um, I never forget in the in the actions that I take here that someone back home is working hard to pay the taxes to put the light bill on and to make sure we have an office like this. And then we need to have the responsibility to oversight to make sure those dollars that are going to other countries and other places are being used efficiently and effectively. And so I really admire your approach to that. One last question. What do you really think?
▶ 2:02:01You know, I've heard you mention the social media and some of these other aspects. Uh what do you think is our best way forward? Do we focus more on social media or do we how's our best way forward for trying to communicate that that you know different countries have different ways and different access to different things? But but social media is becoming stronger all the time. So what's your opinion of that situation? I I think we have to move further away from like I said doing 1990s style television.
▶ 2:02:29I mean, you know, you look at President Trump communicates with the world with a simple tweet and it's very effective and hundreds of millions of people hear what he has to say. Joe Rogan, a one-man show, reaches hundreds of millions of people. We don't need thousands of people to tell America's story. People are telling America's story on social media. We can do it, as I said, in a more nimble way and focus on on ways that we're telling it appropriately.
▶ 2:02:56And right now, as I said, the pro-Iranian regime coverage that's come out of this, the pro-CP coverage has come out of Voice of America, this thing has has gotten very rotten, and we've had pro-Russian uh coverage coming out. We've hired Russian spies. Radio Free Europe nearly hired 20 Russian spies. If not for being tipped off, they would have had 20 Russian spies working in that outlet. And God only knows what kind of damage they could have done. These things are a waste of money.
▶ 2:03:26They're spending money like there's no tomorrow. Uh salaries are out of control. The president of RF makes more than $320,000, I believe. And then you add all the other leadership in these various grantees. This is a hard-earned taxpayer dollar. And I think about the people who are working hard and barely make ends meet. I think about the overnight truck driver who's doing the overnight shift. I think about the teacher who's working hard and barely has time to come home and and and spend time with her own kids.
▶ 2:03:56I think about the farmer in Iowa who's working long hours and having to pay the government tax dollars and it's going toward for God's sakes a cricket team in Afghanistan and it's going to hire spies. This is outrageous and it's got to stop. And thank God for President Trump for having the courage. My time's up and so uh I yield back. Chair now recognizes Representative Almo. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Miss Lake, for being here.
▶ 2:04:24Uh, since its founding to counter Nazi propaganda during World War II, Voice of America has been a beacon of free information in repressive countries. Voice of America's parent agency, the US Agency for Global Media, or USAGM, has provided access to the free press and information in over 50 languages around the world through radio, television, and internet programs. These programs, as you know, are often the only reliable news sources free from malign government uh foreign government influence.
▶ 2:04:55The programs promote free thought, democratic values, and American credibility while countering authoritarian propaganda and disinformation. However, under your leadership, Miss Lake, USAGM has been shattered. at the direction of President Trump. You cut programs slashfunding and tried to counter uh tried to shutter our global news network. Now journalists are in increased danger and reliable news is no longer accessible for millions around the world.
▶ 2:05:25The editor of the Russian state media network Russia Today celebrated your work to close radioree Europe, another US AGM subsidiary, saying quote, "We couldn't shut them down. Unfortunately, but America did it so itself. If our adversaries are cheering this decision, why make it in the first place? Why, after decades of successful work and experts celebrating the effectiveness of these programs, would you end them?
▶ 2:05:53Why would you side with our adversaries who spread disinformation by removing respected programs that counter their propaganda? Maybe maybe it's just your track record and history of attacking the media. You know, during your uh first failed run for public office for governor of Arizona, you called reporters the right hand of the devil. Maybe it's because you have a history of sharing disinformation yourself.
▶ 2:06:17You refuse to admit still who won the 2020 presidential election, falsely claiming it was a rigged election. You called the January 6th insurrection here at the capital a staged riot. You refuse to admit you lost both in 2022 in a gubatorial race and uh in 2024 for the US Senate. The disinformation you spread during your failed campaigns were paper cuts, however, compared to the gaping wounds that will take root around the world because of your destruction of USAGM.
▶ 2:06:48Our adversaries are already filling the massive information hole left by USAGM. The 60 shortwave radio stations Radio Free Asia used to distribute its broadcasts have been silenced since you s shut them down in March. And at the same time, China has added 80 new state media frequencies to increase the spread of their propaganda.
▶ 2:07:11So instead of listening to free press and trusted news from Radio Free Asia, nearly 60 million people are forced to turn to the Chinese Communist Party. The spread of CCP disinformation is alarming. In Shenzhen, where Radio Free Asia brought global attention to the Weaguer genocide. As the CCP worked overtime to hide this genocide by imprisoning Weaguer journalists, spreading propaganda and controlling news, Radio Free Asia fought back to share the true story.
▶ 2:07:42The CCP tried to shut down Radio Free Asia's operations. They jammed signals and arrested and intimidated journalists and their families. It did not work. Thanks to Radio Free Asia, the world knows the truth. It was spreading in China, too, because they translated stories into different dialects. Or at least it was until you took over USAGM and aided and and the the CCP by stopping their work. That's your legacy.
▶ 2:08:10You told the media that you would be their worst quote freaking nightmare. You do seem to be a bit of a nightmare. A nightmare to the free press. a nightmare to the truth uh in general, but not our adversaries. They seem very comfortable. So, I've got a simple question for you, Miss Lake. Why are you helping authoritarian governments lie to their people?
▶ 2:08:34I can see why maybe China would be upset because they lost that with that VA is slimming down because they lost their ability to push their propaganda through the VA, which they were doing. I don't know if you were here earlier, but the CCP. I've been watching you. Don't worry. The CCP has a lot of control over what kind of content VA does. You know who doesn't have control? People running the agency. The C the VA could do a hit piece on you. They could lie about you.
▶ 2:09:02They could put the most heinous story out about you. And guess what, Representative Ammo? You couldn't pick up the co the call the phone call and say, "Please don't do that. It's not true." they would sue you for a firewall violation. So, we got to get a handle about what message we're putting out. And sadly, it hasn't been rainbows and lollipops, okay? We've been putting out a lot of anti-America propaganda, Russian propaganda. My time is expired. Okay, great. I yield back.
▶ 2:09:31Gentleman's time is expired. And I would remind my colleagues as well uh it could be any one of them that was targeted by uh US Agency of Global Media and uh by individuals inside of the headquarters on either side of the aisle. I look forward to hearing the results of of that investigation. Chair now recognizes Representative McKenzie. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Miss Lake, for joining us today.
▶ 2:09:53Uh I think it is imperative that we recognize the challenge that VA faces uh in terms of the infiltration that we've been talking about during this hearing of the anti-American uh information that has been put out uh whether it's pro-Russia, pro-China. Uh all of this is problematic and I think it's also a problem that members on this committee aren't willing to recognize that problem.
▶ 2:10:18if we can't all come together and recognize the fact that this organization and this agency is conflicted uh in many ways uh I don't know how we're going to address the problem. So I appreciate the fact that you've recognized that and your reform efforts are critical if we want to actually advance America's interest around the world get out this truthful uh information. We need to make sure that we are then uh going to be in a position to spend the dollars that we're appropriating for this program effectively.
▶ 2:10:47So the question that I have relates to two uh I think misuses of public funds. Uh the first is about a lease. So we have a video uh that has been provided that shows a uh facility that was leased for 15 years $250 million $250 million of taxpayer money to lease this lavish building in downtown Washington DC on Pennsylvania Avenue. Nice.
▶ 2:11:14Yet at the same time, they are still occupying the Cohen building. So tell me about this new lease and what we know about it at this point. Well, their plan was to take this operation and move it into this building. A quarter of a billion dollar boondoggle that Amanda Bennett, the former CEO under Joe Biden's administration, the former CEO of USA GM signed in this lease right before in the fall, right before the election to make the American taxpayers pay for this gorgeous facility.
▶ 2:11:44Have you ever seen a federal facility this beautiful, by the way? And there you go. We've got waterfalls, you've got Italian marble, glass, and they were going to move everybody over into this building. One slight problem. There's it's not set up or equipped to do any broadcasting, and this is a broadcasting agency. Just so we canled that and and tore up the lease and said we're not going to pay for that lease. Thank you for doing that because that is just a shocking misuse of f federal funds.
▶ 2:12:13Uh, and if we do want to actually carry out the good work that VA possibly could do, we need to make sure that American tax dollars are being spent appropriately and not on wasteful uh, leases like this one. So, appreciate your effort to cancel that lease. The second thing that I would like to talk about is relating to uh, some really egregious settlements that were carried out previously uh, for former uh, employees of the agency and you referenced it in your opening testimony.
▶ 2:12:42Uh, so I would like to hear a little bit more about this. Again, it sounds like a a misuse of federal funds and uh if you could share some more information on that. I I think a lot of DC lawyers figured out a quick way to make money is to sue this agency. This agency will roll over and pay off any settlement. As a matter of fact, one of our former attorneys at the agency upon seeing how many settlements were made there said that she's never seen so many large settlements go out in any agency.
▶ 2:13:09I have in this uh in this binder 19 settlements. These we picked we only picked the big ones over uh $250,000 settlements. 19 $250,000 settlements were made out of the USAGM uh in the last five years. A couple of them were for folks uh a man named David Cliggerman who used to work for the agency. Now he works I believe over at Middle East Broadcasting.
▶ 2:13:37He left the agency uh after the the Meguire Woods report came out showing uh missspending, mis abuse of the agency, abuse of the federal tax dollar. And then he came back when Biden and put Amanda Bennett in hired him back and paid him a settlement. His attorneys made a fortune as well. I think they figured out that they've got compliant a compliant legal office at USAGM that will settle anything.
▶ 2:14:05All you got to do is sue the agency and they'll throw tons of money your way. And that's another way they've pilered tax dollars of the American people. Well, I appreciate your work to highlight the waste and misuse from the last administration when our country is trillions of dollars in debt, running multi-trillion dollar deficits every single year. We have to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. It's finally time to do that.
▶ 2:14:28I'm glad this administration is taking on that effort, attacking uh waste and abuse of federal funds like I just talked about here. And if we actually want to get back to the mission of promoting American interests around the world, we need to do that with the tax dollars that we have available. And so these reform efforts that we're talking about today are so critically important.
▶ 2:14:48And I again want to thank you for our efforts uh and worked with you hand in hand as we actually get back to the critical missions that this agency could provide uh for America and American interest around the world. Thank you. And I yield back. Chair now recognizes Representative Titus. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 2:15:05Uh before I get to my questions, I'd just like for the record to show that the US AGM reported to Congress that that so-called Swanky building that you just saw pictures of would actually save the taxpayers $150 million. So, let's let's be sure we get our facts straight as we try to grandstand with pictures. Now, I answer some other questions for you. Um thank you.
▶ 2:15:28Uh, Miss Lake, do you agree that the US Agency for Global Media should be a reliable and authoritative news source? Yes. And unfortunately, it hasn't been. Well, I'm glad you say that because it's really not a matter of opinion. It's a matter of law. The law requires the agency to provide news which is consistently reliable and authoritative, accurate, objective, and comprehensive.
▶ 2:15:53Now, you criticize the agency as not doing that, but others think that the agency was doing that up until the time that Donald Trump took office. We broadcast news to hundreds of millions of people around the world and provided a crucial counterweight to the propaganda that was coming from our adversaries. Then, President Trump decided to dismantle it uh USAGM with your help and all its networks.
▶ 2:16:18Uh but in my view, the most ludicrous and concerning thing that has been done was to direct the agency to engage One America News to provide content for Voice of America and your other broadcasters. So I'd like to ask you, do you think UA One America News is a reliable and authoritarian news source as the law requires? Yeah, I think they do a better job than most news outlets. They they cover America.
▶ 2:16:45Well, let's look at some of the things that they've said and you tell me that you if you really by the way it was not my idea to do that. We were it's under your direction and from your president said is so wonderful. I'm surprised you're not wearing a mag broadcasting requested that we can keep talking over you forever but let's look at some of the things that the O did which was given the contract and they're doing it whether it's from you or from the president that you admire.
▶ 2:17:13So, uh, they said they the leadership there told its reporters to, and I'm quoting, minimize coverage of Russian aggression. Now, do you think that's reliable and authoritative and better than other news agencies to minimize coverage of Russian aggression? I I don't I'm I'm not making up I'm not making the rundown of what airs on One America's Voice, but they have to cover um or One American News rather.
▶ 2:17:41They have to cover what is of interest to them and to their viewers. But they're the ones who now have the contract to put out the news to all their these different agencies that are under your direction. Shouldn't you be aware of what kind of news they're putting out? I I don't tell them what to put on the air at Voice of America because of an editorial firewall. Apparently the CCP has more say in what goes over the air. Ridiculous. I don't think China's over here telling O what to what they can recover.
▶ 2:18:11I don't think China told them whistleblowers to minimize their coverage of Russian whistleblowers. Something else. Let me ask you if you think this is a good coverage. Uh they their programming for the agency they were told also minimize coverage of the pope because he has uh been making comments about climate change and advocating action. You think that's good coverage not to cover the pope? You think that's reliable and authoritative?
▶ 2:18:39I I it's it's not my my decision on what is airing up. You're in charge. It's You're in charge. I'm not in charge of you got the contract with these people. So, it seems like it's your decision. Here's something else. They the reports say that O instructed its employees to report only on good polls for Donald Trump. Only on good polls. And they perpetuated the lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 election. That's the news. They were one of the only world under your leadership.
▶ 2:19:07They were one of the only outlets that had the courage to cover elections. Oh, please, please. That you're going to say we're going to only cover good polls for Trump and and still continue to say that the 2020 election was rigged and that's the news we're putting out to the rest of the world and that's the ones who have the contract. Let me see if I can pull the phone number for the person who runs O and you can have a conversation about. You have the phone number. You're the one. worried about the content on Voice of America. You're worried about the content that has been supportive of our adversaries.
▶ 2:19:37These people are saying they're supposed to be under the law uh and reliable and and and now suddenly after knowing all these details about the number of spies and what the Chinese are doing, you don't know what O is doing and that's the ones you have the contract with. I find that either we don't have a contract with them. We have an agreement if we want to get an agreement. And I um I I can't believe that.
▶ 2:20:02I can't believe you know everything about all these other agreements, but uh not about the one that's doing the news for us that's supposed to be reliable and can't cover the Pope, can't cover Russian aggression, which would mean Ukraine. Can't cover that the election was legitimate. Can't cover any negative polls from the president. I'm sorry. This is just I yield back. I yield back. It's the best news I've heard all day. Gentle's time is expired.
▶ 2:20:30Chair now recognizes Representative Burchett. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, ma'am, for being here. Um I think what you're seeing on display here today is is the far left is sacrificing their moderate um a lot of their moderate members just to protect themselves. I think it's they're more important to stay in their corrupt little cocoon of power than to to do what's right for this country. And I want to thank you, ma'am, for the work you've done. I noticed you were talking about real estate.
▶ 2:20:58I didn't have it in my notes, but I remembered in another hearing that we had in an empty building that we were renting out that uh Chairman Green had us, Marjorie Taylor Green had us in um uh in the Doge subcommittee that um I asked a question about do members of Congress own real estate that's being rented to the federal government? And the answer was yes.
▶ 2:21:24And um and if we had legitimate media in this country, that would have been a 60-minute story. That would have been something that would have been done over and over again. And it's clearly um and they're they're stealing from all of us, the left, the right, the middle, everyone. And um and you clearly have a record of going after political hacks, and I salute you for that, ma'am. This town is full of them. Yes, ma'am. It is. And I'm I'm from Tennessee, and we're sick and tired of paying for this garbage, and I want to thank you.
▶ 2:21:53Um, is the US Agency of Global Media absolutely necessary to the function of the United States? No. Okay. To think that we're putting out some some radio show um in the land of computers and internet to me is uh is is very antiquated. Um, we might as well be riding a Model T down the middle of the street. It maybe it looks good and it brings back old memories, but dad gum, it's not very efficient. And I I I see you're more of a relic. It's Yes, ma'am.
▶ 2:22:23It is. It's a cold war relic. Does And I'll ask you another question a little more direct. Some there lady named Satara Siege. Does she work for the US Agency for global media? Do you know? I don't believe she works there anymore. Okay. Because in 2017, Miss Siege was fired from the Voice of America Persian news network for lying on her resume, providing federal contracts to her friends, and using tax dollars for personal travel.
▶ 2:22:52In 2021, about 8 hours after Biden was sworn in, and Miss Siege was given a job right back at the US Agency for Global Media. And during the last Congress, she and others at the US Agency for Global Media actively worked to discredit a report from the committee by then Chairman McCall which detailed her actions and included whistleblower complaints stating she and others threatened subordinates at work. Are are you are you of any aware of any other cases similar to Miss Siege? Ma'am, yes.
▶ 2:23:21A lot of the people that were implicated in that uh that report, the Maguire Woods report, who pilered the American taxpayers dollars and and ran a very corrupt agency and were dismissed or left, then came back. And some of them are still holding positions, making hundreds of thousands of dollars at our grantees. This is why we're trying to do an audit of the grantees to find out where the money is going.
▶ 2:23:45nearly $400 million the hard-earned taxpayer dollars of of hardworking American people are going to these grantees and they've stonewalled us from getting any information until the 11th hour finally last night knowing I would be sitting here they finally agreed to say oh we'll let you look at our books now it's a joke what's going on and the joke is going to end and we're going to bring some accountability to this agency because the people of this country are sick and tired of the crap going
▶ 2:24:15on in Washington DC. They're sick and tired of their money being spent in a way where it's not only being wasted, but where where we're putting out Russian propaganda, where we're putting out CCP propaganda on Voice of America. This is a a boondoggle and it's it's an assault on the American people. If I ever write a book, the title of it will be compromised because that's what this dad gum town is, ma'am. It is crooked as a dog's leg. And I'm glad you're doing something about it.
▶ 2:24:45Do you agree anyone who acts like Miss C should be shown the door? Absolutely. And we are showing people the door. And I thank you for that. I I come from a family of strong women. My mama flew an airplane during the Second World War. My little girl is uh I got her a little late. I married her mama. She was a widow and adopted her. And she is a strong young lady. Shares a birthday with the president. Just turned 18.
▶ 2:25:11and and I I hope one day she aspires to to kick the hornets's nest like you've just done, ma'am, because it's a pleasure to have you where you're at. And thank you so much, and I appreciate you having to put up with all this crazy nonsense, but we got a country to save, and I hope you keep going. That's right. That's right, ma'am. And and you know, they've sued us. They've tried to stop us. They want to stop President Trump from making America great again.
▶ 2:25:36These same people who refused to stand up and cheer for a 13-year-old boy who's who's battling cancer. These same people who stood on the floor of Congress and waved the Ukrainian flag after pouring $60 billion more into a war to kill more people when they wouldn't put a penny on our border. And they let our country be overrun with with criminals coming into our country who are raping and killing young people and taking their lives.
▶ 2:26:02And now they want to try to fight President Trump every day and stop him from deporting people who came here illegally. And they want to continue running Chinese propaganda at Voice of America. I thank your mother for being a hero, for being a veteran, and and I know the chairman fought valiantly for our country. She wasn't technically a veteran. I have to clarify that. Her her brother died fighting the Nazis. My dad died. He was off fighting the Japanese.
▶ 2:26:31But I'd have to clarify that just because of the fact checkers. But well, but gentleman's time is the gutsy little 17. We have to move on to the next round of questioning here. Chair now, there's a lot of people who are rolling over in their grave right now who did die for this country. That's right. And when they find out that Voice of America is pushing anti-American propaganda. It's unconscionable. Chair now recognizes Representative Dean. I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 2:27:00Uh, I've just heard three or four or five members from the other side of the aisle say, "Thank you for bringing reform." You're welcome. No, but let me finish my sentence, please, because that's not what you're bringing. They obviously didn't hear your testimony. They did not read your testimony. And I'll read part of it. And you you said it again today.
▶ 2:27:25I was sworn in at USAGM on March 3rd and it became clear in the following weeks. Today you said in days that reform was not possible. They missed your premise. Reform's not possible. You figured that out in days. When asked what review you had done of this very large agency, you had no answer. A couple excuse me, this is my time. You'll wait for my questions.
▶ 2:27:53You then went on to say, uh, this is filled with a bloated staff who hates America. You have been holding up photographs after photographs, including the image of the president of the United States. I feel like I am suffering through a propaganda war through your testimony.
▶ 2:28:14So, I can see why the other side of the aisle, which is now not here, uh was utterly confused and comp and congratulating you for wanting to reform this agency. No, because here's what you said and and I'm a former professor of of writing. I'm somebody who is really skeptical of euphemism. You've said over and over again, you just want to reduce it to its statutory minimum. And then you said and that it will be gone by 2026.
▶ 2:28:45You want it gone. The president wants it gone by 2026. Uh I ask unanimous consent to enter onto the record this article. Moscow and Beijing rejoice at the looming death of Radio Free Europe VA. I ask unanimous consent. Thank you chair. No, that is not for you to speak to speak to. That's what we do here.
▶ 2:29:10Uh, this article, Chinese propaganda surges as the US defunds Radio Asia. I ask unanimous consent. Our adversaries are delighted with your plan, delighted that you'll be stripping this thing out. And I'm puzzled. My question really today is for Republican members. Think of the the vaunted uh VA.
▶ 2:29:35I have had the opportunity to visit VA and many of the journalists who have worked at VA. It is something that this country has been very proud of. And yet in your beginning testimony you you talked about oh my goodness AGM quote hires a large number of foreign nationals including from countries hostile to America and uses J1 visas as a shadow jobs and backdoor immigration program.
▶ 2:30:03Number one, again, propaganda and misinformation, J1 visas are non-immigrant visas. Number two, and this is just a question of logic and basic understanding. Think about it, many of the journalists who report uh through these supported networks are native to the countries in which it is critical to transmit accurate, factual, and legal uh langu linguistically fluent information.
▶ 2:30:33Of course, we should be they should be hired. But you you use as though that's a bad thing. Large number of foreign nationals as though there's some other as though there's a reason to demonize them. Foreign national journalists who actually understand what's going on. We should hire. You know what? Voice of America is not only about talking about America.
▶ 2:30:58It's about reporting on the world and millions of people for decades have relied upon it. So for those of you who think this was about reform, it's not. It's about shutting down media. If you really wanted to reform it, if you really thought there were places to change, and I'm sure there are places to improve, then you would have spent a more than a few days and come to a more serious conclusion. That's my worry about you in this position.
▶ 2:31:28You're just not serious about it. You are a propaganda machine for the Trump administration. It is an incompetent review that you have completed. Well, actually, you didn't complete it. It sounds like you never even started it. You didn't interview anybody. You didn't You've never run an agency like this. You're a former journalist, apparently. Allegedly.
▶ 2:31:48Although I tr I don't trust your journalistic uh integrity when you hold up a single picture of a newsroom at a single moment in time and think that reveals anything. It reveals nothing. It's evidence of nothing. I don't know if they all just went to lunch. Who knows what that's a picture of. Your journalistic integrity I've been to many newsrooms. Your journalistic integrity is shot.
▶ 2:32:15My son has an expression that he taught me years ago that trust and credibility is gained in drops and poured out in buckets. Sadly, you have poured out that trust and credibility over years. But I see why Mr. Trump put you in this position. He doesn't want a free press. He doesn't want Americans, soldiers across this globe hearing the facts of what's going on.
▶ 2:32:43He doesn't want our adversaries to actually know what's going on. Look at what we're up to today. We can't get the facts. We can't even get a briefing on an attack by the United States using our exquisite military expertise from the president of the United States and those who put it forward. We can't get at the facts. All we're getting is propaganda. Totally obliterated the nuclear program of Iran.
▶ 2:33:12We have to rely upon that as our news source. I'll be going to a skiff to try to get whatever little information we can. But honest to goodness, I have no question for you because you don't have any credibility. You have misled this other side of the aisle with some notion of reform. When you even say you don't want reform, you just want to collapse the dog on thing. You fired people. You let people go.
▶ 2:33:40You misled this committee worrying about who was vetting the hires. You didn't bother to say that in 2018 to 2021 the new hires were vetted by DoD. You've misled this committee. You're misleading America. You did it in your own state through your own elections. You did it with the presidential election. You've lost your credibility.
▶ 2:34:10You've poured it out in buckets and I yield the remainder of my time. Any way I can respond to some of that? I didn't know. I can. Okay. Well, let's let's start the I agree that we have an exquisite military. I've never heard it referred to by that.
▶ 2:34:27And I think that um you would have been fighting and hopefully you were fighting representative when our military were being summarily fired because they didn't want to get an experimental shot. So hopefully you were sitting in that chair standing up for the member men and women in our military being fired from the military and hopefully you are opposed to the CCP propaganda that has snuck in to the VA. But I'm not sure if you are.
▶ 2:34:57And you talk about um you know, you're you talk about me being upset that we're hiring foreign nationals. Madam Chairwoman, I really am not asking for any response. So I would ask that this stop there. I don't know whose time she is on. Thank you very much. Um, I now recognize myself to ask questions. And I want to thank the uh committee chairman best and uh ranking member of this committee for holding today's hearing.
▶ 2:35:26And I want to thank you Carrie uh Miss Lake uh for joining us today uh as we work to reform US AGM to its intended purpose as a national security tool. And I know some of my colleagues uh have already mentioned this as well, but these past few days the world has been watching the Israel Iran conflict.
▶ 2:35:48And as Iranian audiences are desperate for critical information, the digital content from BOA's radio fara has surged with noteworthy spikes in BOHIP. Meanwhile, North Korea's state-run newspaper, The Nong Shimon, condemned the United States for the recent US strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
▶ 2:36:12Without reporting from the outside world through VA and RFA, most North Korean civilians only see the United States as a bad guy who with no factual background or understanding of the risk of the nuclear development. So I worry about the US government's ability to win in the information domain during the next crisis which could be just around the corner. For example, you know, Taiwan straight crisis.
▶ 2:36:41Is the United States able to rapidly disseminate information and counter Chinese disinformation without entities like RFA who have had a longstanding and unique presence in the I acknowledge that we need accountability and transparency within USAGM and among the grantee but we need to accomplish this with measured congressional review and reform that does
▶ 2:37:11not unintentionally seed ground to our adversaries. So let me ask you a first line of questioning related to uh the retaining the critical functions of VA. With the recent events in the Middle East, we saw a lastm minute scramble to bring back VA Farsy speaking staff who are on administrative leave.
▶ 2:37:34Meanwhile, dramatic cuts to RF RL radio liberty have crippled the the uh Persian language service to radio Florida. The US AGM reorganization terminated over 1,400 positions at Voice of America and spurred massive layoffs at the grantee organizations.
▶ 2:37:56So, did you and your team have any concerns about how these terminations would severely limit the US government's ability to support the flow of accurate information abroad? Could you explain why or why not? I don't think it will limit our ability to tell America's story abroad and we are doing that and you know you said scrambled to bring people in. I wouldn't say scramble.
▶ 2:38:20I think when breaking news happens, if you've been in a newsroom, you you get uh there's a much you could call it scrambling if you choose, but basically when breaking news happens, it's all hands on deck. And these professionals came back in and they're still with us and they're still employed and and they got to work as you do in a newsroom, especially when news happens and it's not at their normal time where they would normally be in. You come into the newsroom and you cover the story. And that's what we're going to do. We can do it with a smaller staff.
▶ 2:38:48This newsroom should have been downsized a long time ago, but because it's the federal government and they don't believe in downsizing at all, it hasn't happened. It's an over too many people were working in the newsroom and we've shrunk that down in order to meet the president's statutory uh his requirement to bring it into statutory minimum. Okay, let me get to the next line of question regarding the grantees. Uh, the RFA has been vital in countering the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda.
▶ 2:39:17Whether it was exposing the CCP's ridiculous attempts to blame the US for the CO9 pandemic or uncovering the Wiger genocide to the world that left RFA Wiger Service reporters and their families vulnerable to CCP harassment. USA jams journalists have spent decades building credibility and trust with audiences that have grown dramatically in recent decades with the organization reorganization.
▶ 2:39:44However, the grantees have had to let go of a significant portion of their employees and are unable to effectively fulfill their mission. So what strategy can you explain to us do you have in place to ensure we preserve the uh respective missions the talents the functions and on the ground expertise of the grantee organizations? Well a lot of what the grantees are doing were was duplicatus of what we're doing at VA.
▶ 2:40:12Why do we need RFA to be doing a Mandarin news service when we at VA are doing Mandarin? Why do we need to have taxpayers pay for that? And also, we don't have a grant agreement, a current grant agreement. We're working to get one and they have not been cooperative. You know, the the grant agreement that was in place that the Biden administration put in place with with these folks had no transparency and we don't have a a current approved financial plan from these grantees either.
▶ 2:40:42And then they choose to sue us. They choose to sue us in the middle of this. My understanding the VA operation is pretty much gone. No, no, it's not gone people there. We're we're doing what is statutoily required, the statutory minimum. President Trump put forth in his executive order to bring this state this agency to its statutory minimum functions. And Mandarin happens to be one of those statutoily required languages. And we have a staff.
▶ 2:41:09I believe we have about 15 people we will be staffing for our Mandarin coverage. And you mentioned if something were to happen, a big news story were to break, we would surge people over. This is how newsrooms operate. For example, in an American newsroom, when the elections happen, you surge people in to cover. You put more reporters on covering the elections because it's a big story. And then when there aren't elections, you have fewer people covering elections. When there's an earthquake, you surge people over.
▶ 2:41:38We have pulled back 17.3 million from the grantees. We're going to use that money to surge operations for news coverage when need be. Well, I agree that we have to have a efficient operations. But the point that I'm trying to make is that we have let go of journalists that have spent decades building their cred credibility and trust with our uh audiences that are listening and relying on RFA, RFB, RL.
▶ 2:42:05Uh it just want to make sure that those uh talents are not uh uh eliminated and we are able to bring them back as soon as possible. And again, uh, well, we're paying RFA. We we've paid them. I mean, I don't know what they're doing with their money. I do know they're suing us with their money. I'm not sure what they're doing. We're paying RFA. And if if they're hire if they're firing their workers, then that's on them. But this agency spends $950 million. $400 million is going to these grantees.
▶ 2:42:34And I in the interest of time, I know we're way over time. Uh, I do want to recognize Mr. Johnson from Rep. Johnson from Texas. Miss Johnson, I'm sorry. Thank you so much. Um, Madame Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity, Miss Lake. Hi. Um, so I want to address a couple things that was just recently said. Um, Representative Burchett was trying to imply with your his questioning of you that it's just a Voice of America's a relic.
▶ 2:43:02I just looked it up and 354 million people listen to it every week. So, I would hardly qualify or classify that as a relic. Those are government numbers and I don't trust those numbers. Well, that's a sad state of affairs when you don't trust the government that you're representing and that you're working for and that in an agency that you're in charge of. That's a pathetic statement to tell the American people that you don't trust the government that you're leading. So, next time this is my time.
▶ 2:43:30And so, um, and Representative Kim, I share your concerns. I was um comforted to hear that she expressed concerns to you that quote I wrote it down she worries about the US ability to win the information war going forward and I share that concern. I'm very concerned that we are seating ground and in her own statement she said that the voice of America is vital in contradicting the CCP China um propaganda and I CCP propaganda.
▶ 2:43:58So no this is we are countering their propaganda. So, I have some questions. You know, this is I just want to make sure that I um have the record correct and I have your statements correct. Uh you have called the Voice of America anti-American propaganda. Correct. And I think you're implying that today is that they have they have put forth propaganda from other countries. Sadly, I'm very sad about that. So, and would you and you do consider Voice of America to be a biased agency. Is that correct? They have been. Yes. Yes.
▶ 2:44:27And you agree uh that the characterization of Voice of America's track record is unsalvageable and appalling. Is that correct? Pardon me. You you think that the Voice of America's track record is unsalvageable. Correct. I I think that this agency, US Agency for Global Media is unsalvageable that we can pull parts that are are are decent and we could work with and that would be VA. Yeah.
▶ 2:44:51The thing that's so stunning is that this is an exact set of messaging put out by the Chinese that VA is a frontline propaganda tool. VA is widely recognized as Washington's carefully crafted propaganda machine. This is Chinese propaganda that you are reating propaganda. Excuse me.
▶ 2:45:13But that is absolutely outrageous that what is happening now is that the Trump administration has cut 70 gone from 71 employees to two 71 to two of America of the people running voice of America in China and we have a situation where you are essentially paring the Chinese propaganda. It's for the dismantling of voice of America. So what do we have?
▶ 2:45:40We have the Trump administration cutting all service personnel of this agency. We have the head of the Trump administration who's over this agency paring Chinese propaganda. And all we are doing is seating America's critical voice. We are the counterbalance in the world of democracy against China, against North Korea, against Russia. The Americans, the United States government, we are the voice. We are the voice of dem democracy.
▶ 2:46:08We are the voice that the world relies on for accurate information just as Representative Kim implied in Iran. She a member of the opposing party. This is not this is Republican and a Democrat agreeing that the voice of America is critical and you are gutting it, dismantling. If you had concerns, why don't you just fire the people who are giving information you don't agree with and hire some others?
▶ 2:46:36Why are you just throwing the entire agency out seeding America's role in the world of information to the Chinese are our enemy of disinformation. You know, we have had multiple hearings of this committee. being very concerned over propaganda and disinformation that the Chinese are propagating in our country and throughout the world.
▶ 2:47:00And instead of stepping it up and fighting harder and bringing American might to the fight and the truth of what we believe in, we're saying, "Take it. You can have it all. We're just going to go away because we don't believe what we're doing anymore." And that is absolutely outrageous. We are seeding all of our soft power in the world to our adversaries because the Trump administration doesn't believe in accurate truth.
▶ 2:47:29And I just cannot for the life of me figure out why it is that you want to do it. It's just unconscionable to me. And unfortunately, I'm out of time. I yield back. Maybe you should run for president because I'm a member of Congress and I'm very happy where I am. Thank you. Okay. Well, because the president won with an overwhelming mandate and the president has the right to put forth an executive uh order and I have the duty to effectuate that executive order.
▶ 2:47:58have roles and responsibility of oversight as members of Congress and that is exactly what we're doing. And I don't think the president campaigned to seed all of American propaganda, all of American information to the Chinese. I don't think that that is exactly what he ran on the Chinese propaganda. So I disagree with you completely. I can see that. I guess my time is up. So thank you. Chair now recognizes Representative Bigs. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mrs. Lake, thank you.
▶ 2:48:27Um, I appreciate your testimony. It's become clear that one of our most urgent concerns is how our own taxpayer funded outlets like USAGM, VA, OCB, and their grantees appear to be churning out, spreading content that doesn't just look down on America, but actively works against our national security and vital interest.
▶ 2:48:57This is a betrayal and if it's happening it's not just problematic but it's a deeprooted corruption that needs to be exposed and rooted out. In light of this I have just a few questions.
▶ 2:49:13Are you aware of any instances where VA or its grantees have misled their audience or provided false There are a lot of of cases where that has happened. I mean, you could if you just look at the political bias.
▶ 2:49:31I would say that you're misleading um I'm going to I'm going to throw one case out because people will remember this video and it was of Robert Dairo um the actor who has really seemed to go off the deep end lately putting out a rant against the president and he called them all kinds of things a dog and awful things. Said he want to punch him in the face.
▶ 2:49:52That video was played on VA Ukraine for the audiences in Ukraine to see to make them believe that that was the sentiment of the American people when Joe Biden literally failed and practically fell on his face in the debate when everybody when all of a sudden the Democrats realized, okay, we got a problem here and we're going to have to acknowledge that Joe Biden has serious cognitive problems. VA wouldn't even report that. They made it sound like his debate was fined.
▶ 2:50:20Only days later did they come in and try to make up ground. You can talk about the October 7th terrorist attack in Israel, refusing to call that a terrorist attack, refusing to call the terrorist who inflicted that kind of carnage on Israel terrorist. I could go on and on, but you look at the waste that we they have perpetuated against the American people. The $850,000 spent on a New York concert.
▶ 2:50:47Why are we spending money that's meant for putting our American message out on a concert in New York? Why are we doing that? When I first got in, I one of the first things that came across my email was um a complaint that we had a cross-dressing man reporting in VA uh to VA to the Pakistan audience. Why are we putting a cross-dressing man on the air to tell America's story in Pakistan? We got to get things right. This is insane. It's completely out of control.
▶ 2:51:17And and the chairman said, I think I can't remember the exact figure. I think he said um the iHeart Radio has a a budget of about 80 or 90 million. This is a nearly billion dollar budget and we're putting out in many cases schllock, something that's unwatchable and worse yet that's unamerican, procing our enemies. It's unconscionable that we would do that. I would agree with that and so would my district.
▶ 2:51:44Um, and moving on, have you encountered any situations where VA or its grantees have promoted or reported anti-American sentiment? And I think you just touched on that briefly. And I'm happy to pull more if you if you don't mind, I'd be happy to pull more examples of that and we can submit it to you later. Okay.
▶ 2:52:06And uh just in looking at it from a different perspective, are you aware of any cases where VA or its grantees have promoted propaganda from an adversarial nation? Yes, and I' I think I've made that clear today. We have CCP influence where literally folks over at the Chinese embassy are telling the folks at VA how to cover China. That's one example.
▶ 2:52:34Those are very concerning. Thank you very much for your response and I yield back. Chair now recognized represent Miss Lake over and over and over again. Russian propagandists tell us you can't trust the VA. They're a phony organization. They tell a lot of lies. And you are here today repeating that Russia propaganda point again and again and again.
▶ 2:53:03Chinese government agents tell their people do not believe the voice of America. They tell lies and you are here repeating that Chinese propaganda point. What's particularly illustrative is uh my colleague said, you know, you have three to 400 million uh listeners uh per week nationwide worldwide. And you said you can't trust that number. It comes from the government.
▶ 2:53:34That number is quite consistent with the numbers issued by the Trump administration in 2017 and 2018. Everybody in this room knows that I don't trust Donald Trump. Now they know you don't trust Donald Trump. Having administered that agency for four years, issues numbers as to how many listeners they have, and you say, "Don't trust them." That's because Excuse me. It's my time. Trump it. Miss Lake, do you know the rule? You know the rules here. Follow the rules.
▶ 2:54:03Now, you had your opening statement. This is my five minutes. Uh, Mr. Putin wants to weaken America. There are those in America who want to help him. Those who want to help Putin know that they can't just scuttle an American aircraft carrier. So they're trying to do something that is far more dangerous to our role in the world and our national security and that is to scuttle our international broadcasting.
▶ 2:54:31Now uh we have a bipartisan Armenian caucus, two chairs, two co-chairs. You have eliminated all Armenian language broadcasting. Did you consult with any of the chairs or co-chairs of the media caucus in Congress before you cut off that broadcasting? That's a yes or no question. Nope. That's how decisions are made. And I'm sure you didn't consult with the US ambassador in Yeravan either.
▶ 2:54:59I'd like unanimous consent to put in the record a report from the uh US Office of Special Counsel uh detailing the uh terrible administration of uh USAGM during the latter months of the Trump administration. I'll point out that Ms. Lake tells us how terrible it is that she can't get information. You know who really needs information? Congress. You know who's sitting behind you? Uh Mr.
▶ 2:55:29Michael PAC, the former under Trump director. Same job you have who we had to try to subpoena to come here and give Congress information and we got stonewalled. But had we had Mr. act here.
▶ 2:55:45In your testimony, you talk about how there's uh uh waste and we would have detailed all the waste of your pre your Trump appointed predecessor and how the $1.6 million of personnel claims that you cite occurred chiefly under the Trump administration. So, you're here basically saying that you don't think you can't that we can't um have international broadcasting because you can't run it.
▶ 2:56:15The idea that you say, "Well, China is telling Voice of America how to broadcast." Of course, you try to interview Chinese diplomats. You interview members of Congress. I don't that does not mean, you know, I tell them all the LA Times what they should do all the time. they they tend not to listen. Uh every journalist is h is given advice by everybody in the world all the time.
▶ 2:56:42Now um I I think uh Miss Kim did a good job of illustrating the uh uh the problems with closing down our broadcasting efforts. uh our soft power is of critical importance and uh I think uh Putin would be very happy.
▶ 2:57:06Um now as I pointed out there are many settlements of uh uh due to lawb breaking and violations uh that you cite and of course they occurred back in 2020 under Mr. Pax. No wonder he refused the the the subpoena. No wonder he wouldn't testify here. No I I will give you credit. You're here uh and uh you're here defending the indefensible which is that America should be ti silent on the world stage.
▶ 2:57:37Uh our broad ability bombs are powerful, truth is more powerful. Taking the bombs away from our military would be bad. Taking truth away from our public diplomacy efforts is worse. I yield back. I now recognize my colleague from Arizona, Congressman Hammeday. Thank you, Chairwoman.
▶ 2:58:02I want to thank Chairman Bass for allowing me to wave into this committee and uh uh Miss Lake. It's hard to say Miss Lake. I know you as Carrie and so does everybody. Somebody so does everybody in Arizona. And Carrie, uh for everything you had to endure in this committee hearing, especially not just here, but we had what you had to endure in 2022. Um, and I know you're a fighter for the truth.
▶ 2:58:24We all know what what happened with our elections in 2020 and 2022 and the tentacles of the Communist Chinese Party, which has just been reported by John Solomon, and how they were trying to impact the 2020 election. I know FBI director Cash Patel is trying to get to the bottom of it. Uh, it's scary that they've infiltrated so many aspects of our government and especially the Voice of America. And uh right here in the Congress, I don't know if you knew this, but the China Daily newspaper was actually being distributed all across Congress and every single office.
▶ 2:58:52And I helped lead the charge to ban the China Daily newspaper from being distributed in the halls of Congress, which I'm proud of. Uh but it concerns me that the Chinese have infiltrated the Voice of America. They were having meetings at the embassy. Can you expand on what access did the communist Chinese have within Voice of America? Well, well, they have more say.
▶ 2:59:13This is sad over editorially what VA and and puts out than someone like me who's been charged with helping to oversee this agency because of an editorial firewall. Uh key lead management and leadership at US agency for global media cannot have uh focus in or tell the folks what they should be covering at Voice of America.
▶ 2:59:37Unfortunately, the CCP can and and I've read this a little bit earlier, but and I don't know if I should read it again, but they they're literally were attending meetings at the Chinese embassy in Washington DC. And this is a report that I find rather shocking, and I mentioned it. Starting in the first decade of 2000, the Chinese embassy in Washington DC and the leadership of VA's Mandarin Service began an annual meeting to allow embassy officials to voice their opinions about VA's content.
▶ 3:00:06They even convinced uh uh the former leadership during Biden's administration to cut short an interview. They wanted the whole thing cancelled. Uh they they convinced VA leadership to cut short an interview with a whistleblower who was critical of the CCP. And this just continues. This is an article that came out um I believe it was in March. Uh VA senior executives frequently traveled to China attending state sponsored events and meeting with Chinese embassy officials.
▶ 3:00:35These meetings weren't casual diplomatic exchanges. They involved soliciting feedback on VA's programming. Congressman Hammeday, if VA decided to run a hit piece on you, and it was full of lies and they called you and told you they were going to run that and you wanted to say, "Hey, let's clear this up because that's not true. This isn't true, and I suggest you don't run the story," they could sue you for a firewall violation.
▶ 3:01:01But yet a CCP official can tell them how to run the news. It's very dangerous. And I know uh we know how corrupt some of these courts are and I know that there is a big challenge right now trying to stop the authority that you have and trying to reform the VA. And uh we you got to win this battle because President Trump needs this in order to make America great again. Apparently there are judges who want to run an agency rather than be judges.
▶ 3:01:26And you know, my suggestion to those judges, if they really want to run an agency, go to usaob.gov and apply for a job. Well, we know many of them are politicians and black robes. Carrie, I want to talk about uh after President Trump's successful strike on the Iranian nuclear facilities. You put out a a post on X that had it translated his speech in Farsy. So, you were able to do that with the statutory minimums within the VA. Yes, we were. We were. and and it wasn't a scramble as many said.
▶ 3:01:56It was typical breaking news where you you jump in when news happens. And our team, our Persian team were were able to jump in when news broke, when the bombs hit and we were in place ready to go when President Trump delivered his historic address. We had it broadcast on the air and digitally as well online and it was translated simultaneously in Farsy. Even though some people said we didn't do that, we in fact did.
▶ 3:02:24There's a lot of lies out there and unfortunately people um some of the Democrats in this room believe the lies or they know their lies and they want to repeat them. But we were live on the air. That is I think what I heard from one of the members on our team. The the most people saw that tweet than any other tweet that we've ever done on VA Farsc. Incredible. Well, thank you, Miss Lake, for being here and uh thank you for all of us fighting for the truth and in many ways I wouldn't be here in Congress without your help and your support. So, thank you again, Carrie. Thank you.
▶ 3:02:54I yield back, Mr. Chairman. Gentleman yields back. I want to thank you, Miss Lake, for your testimony today. Uh at this point, we're going to do closing statements. Uh I think we covered a lot of ground here today. Uh you spoke about a number of different concerning things uh from what's going on with uh lawfare to foreign nationals being hired and given access and not actually being vetted to uh facilities being empty and not used and uh individuals that have uh you know worked for our adversaries
▶ 3:03:24even though they were supposed to be expressing the sentiments of America. I was uh it's sad that it was not bipartisan to bring up those issues uh but only to attack you. Uh I do want to give the minority side an opportunity to offer any closing statement. Uh because maybe they want to bring it up now. We cleared the room. I don't want them to say I didn't give them a chance because that'll happen later. Yeah.
▶ 3:04:01I guess the minority doesn't have anything else that they want to say. Miss Lake, uh, for my closing statement, I'm going to give you the opportunity to, uh, take my time and express any other sentiments that you feel like you didn't have the opportunity to express, any other information that you'd like to put out, and then we will close down this hearing. Well, I want to thank you, Chairman Mast, for allowing me to come and speak about the Voice of America, US Agency for Global Media. America has an incredible story to tell.
▶ 3:04:26Unfortunately, it hasn't been told properly or positively on Voice of America for a long time. And I'd like to see that change. We have we have so much um that we should be telling the world and we shouldn't be putting CCP propaganda, Russian propaganda, uh Iranian regime propaganda on our airwaves that the taxpayers are paying for. This is nearly a billion dollar agency. We know for a fact money is being wasted. We know that the content going out is not supportive of this great country.
▶ 3:04:55Yet the great people of this country are being forced to pay for it. And thankfully, President Trump has come into office and said,"I want to make sure we scale back this outofc control bloat in the federal bureaucracy." And I don't take pleasure in people losing their jobs. But I will tell you in the in the media landscape, the trends have been newsrooms are getting smaller. We don't need as many people. Where it used to take a team of six or seven to get a story out in a live shot, one person can do that now.
▶ 3:05:24I mean, I I mentioned Joe Rogan. He reaches hundreds of millions of people with each of his podcasts and he doesn't have a staff of,00 or,200 people doing that. Unfortunately, in the government, they don't mo like the word modernize and they haven't modernized in this agency. The, you know, 15,000 people in media have lost their jobs in the in 2024, 15,000 broadcast uh media employees lost their jobs due to downsizing.
▶ 3:05:54We can't continue to operate at the level that we're continuing at. And President Trump has asked us to bring this agency down to its statutory minimum. And he's calling for eliminating the agency starting in the fiscal year 2026, which begins in October. And I'm going to work to effectuate that. You know, I could be selfish and say I don't want to end an agency because I'm working in it. I'm happy to do what the president has asked us to do. We need to start scaling back some of the waste.
▶ 3:06:22And I do think it's wasteful to spend money at an agency that's supposed to be telling America's story that is not telling America's story. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that we stop running CCP propaganda that we start putting the true story of America forward as much as I can in the coming months. So, thank you so much for giving us an opportunity and um you know, I I wanted to be respectful to everybody.
▶ 3:06:45Unfortunately, I didn't I didn't think that some of the questions really came forth to to prod and find out what's happening and how we can make it better, but hopefully I was able to provide some answers. We appreciate your testimony today. And I would simply add to that, you know, we can accomplish today with any one given phone, what it used to take uh a team of people to do, a camera person with a tripod and a 20 pound camera and a reporter and somebody holding a microphone and a news truck to broadcast that.
▶ 3:07:14any one of us and any individual across the globe can now conduct that with something that most of us carry in our pocket. That's the difference in the world today as to just a decade ago. That's right. In that I would say this. Pursuant to committee rules, all members may have five legislative days to submit statements, questions, and extraneous materials for the record subject to length limitations. Without objection, this committee stands adjourned.