USAGM begins 532-job layoff at Voice of America amid legal battle

The U.S. Agency for Global Media announced late Friday that it had initiated a reduction in force eliminating 532 federal positions at Voice of America and other broadcasters, a move that agency officials and employee advocates say will intensify an ongoing legal fight over the agency's future. Kari Lake, the agency's acting chief executive, posted that layoff notices were sent to 532 employees and said the terminations were being carried out at the direction of the president; court filings and union statements indicate the cuts will leave roughly 100 to 108 Voice of America staff on the payroll while the agency retains a larger but unspecified number of other employees.

Lake said in her social media statement that the reduction in force will allow the agency to "focus resources where they are most needed, bringing truth to people living under communist regimes and dictatorships" and to "improve the functioning of a very broken agency." Agency filings submitted to the court detail a plan to send RIF notices to 486 Voice of America employees and 46 other agency staff, while retaining 108 VOA employees and 158 employees across the agency. A separate filing showed VOA had 86...