Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty announced that it received its congressionally appropriated funds for April after a six-week delay.
The U.S. Agency for Global Media released the $12 million owed after the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit administratively stayed an earlier decision by its divided three-judge panel that would have allowed USAGM to avoid paying RFE/RL the money it was supposed to receive in April.
Now, the full group of judges will take more time to review the three-judge panel’s reasoning.
RFE/RL said in a statement that although the April funds are welcomed, the news outlet will continue its lawsuit against USAGM. It noted that Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said that Congress enacted and President Trump signed a law funding RFE/RL this fiscal year.
“It is, after all, Congress that makes the laws in this country. In this case, for example, it was Congress who ordained that the monies at issue should be allocated to RFE/RL,” Lamberth wrote.
During the delay, RFE/RL said it was forced to reduce programming and staff, which included the furlough of approximately 120 employees.
