House Foreign Affairs Committee Examines Threats to Independent Agencies

Why it Matters

The White House is seeking to eliminate or drastically curtail several independent agencies that have received bipartisan support for decades. Organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, and the U.S. Institute of Peace are already operating under severe financial strain, with some having furloughed staff and others surviving largely through litigation against the administration's withholding of congressionally appropriated funds.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is set to examine the Trump administration's fiscal year 2027 budget request for State Department-adjacent entities on May 20. The request, released in April, proposes to eliminate several of these independent agencies outright, continuing a push that Congress largely rejected in fiscal year 2026. That rejection, however, came through a continuing resolution that kept adjacent entities at flat fiscal year 2025 funding levels rather than through regular appropriations, leaving the agencies in an extended limbo.

Brian Mast chairs the committee, with Darrell Issa serving as Vice Chair. Gregory Meeks is the ranking member, with Gabe Amo Jr. serving as Vice Ranking Member.

Voice of America and USAGM

The U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, has been among the most visible flashpoints. The Trump administration's fiscal year 2026 budget requested only $153 million for USAGM, explicitly framed as funding to support an "orderly shutdown" of operations. Congress moved in the opposite direction, with a House Appropriations subcommittee proposing $681 million for international media in fiscal year 2026.

As of early May 2026, VOA and Radio Free Asia remained operational largely because of lawsuits challenging the administration's efforts to withhold congressionally appropriated funds. A Poynter analysis published May 8 described the outlets as "mostly shadows of their former selves" after a year of cuts, layoffs, and funding disputes. The fiscal year 2027 budget request renews the administration's push, and the Foreign Affairs Committee hearing will put those competing visions directly in conflict.

The National Endowment for Democracy

NED has faced an arguably more abrupt disruption. The organization issued a public statement acknowledging that access to its congressionally appropriated funds had been "inexplicably cut off," forcing it to halt all partner support and furlough the majority of its staff, even as NED maintained it was exempt from the relevant executive orders.

At a congressional hearing, National Democratic Institute President Tamara Wittes testified that 93 of NDI's 97 awards were terminated, three-fourths of its offices were closed, and approximately 1,000 people were fired. The administration's fiscal year 2027 budget request proposes to eliminate NED's funding entirely. The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, which analyzed the request, described the proposed cuts to independent agencies as part of a broader pattern of eliminating programs "that have long received bipartisan support."

The House Fiscal Year 2027 Spending Bill

The House's fiscal year 2027 National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs spending bill provides the legislative backdrop against which the May 20 hearing will unfold. The Better World Campaign's analysis of the bill found that at $47.32 billion, it represents a six percent cut from fiscal year 2026. Beneath the topline, the bill proposes sweeping reductions to core funding and eliminates key accounts.

The Appropriations Backdrop

Congress enacted a continuing resolution in November 2025 that funded State Department-adjacent entities at fiscal year 2025 levels through the remainder of fiscal year 2026, meaning none of the agencies received updated appropriations through regular order. That stopgap funding environment, combined with the administration's simultaneous efforts to restructure or eliminate many of the same entities through executive action, has left the organizations in a prolonged state of uncertainty. The fiscal year 2027 budget request hearing is the next formal checkpoint in that process.

The State Department's own Congressional Budget Justification for fiscal year 2027, published on April 3, laid out the administration's formal ask, including cuts to public diplomacy and foreign operations accounts. Maryland Matters reported on April 7 that the Trump budget "doubles down on agency reshuffling panned by Congress," noting the request tries again for cuts and consolidations that Congress had previously rejected.

No witnesses have been publicly identified in the hearing record ahead of the May 20 session at 2172 Rayburn House Office Building.

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