The State Department, which was established in 2016, shuts down the US Congress when it fails to increase spending amid Republican accusations.
The top US government watchdog for foreign media has ended its operations, the State Department said, after Congress failed to increase its funding after years of opposition from Republicans.
The Global Engagement Center (GEC), a State Department department established in 2016, was closed on Monday at a time when officials and disinformation experts have been warning of the danger of threats from US adversaries such as Russia and China.
“The State Department has consulted with Congress about the next steps,” it said in a statement when asked what would happen to GEC employees and ongoing operations after the shutdown.
The GEC had an annual budget of $61m and about 120 employees. Its closure leaves the State Department without an office dedicated to investigating and countering wrongful communications from US adversaries for the first time in eight years.
A measure to increase funding for these facilities was removed from the final version of the bipartisan federal bill that passed the US Congress last week.
The GEC has long been under scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who criticize it for monitoring and censoring Americans.
It was also criticized by Elon Musk, who criticized the GEC in 2023 as “the biggest offender of the US government (and) interference with the media” and called the organization “a threat to our democracy.”
GEC leaders pushed back on the idea, saying their work was more important than countering foreign propaganda campaigns.
Musk strongly criticized the initial budget spending that would have kept GEC cash-strapped, even without a middle ground. The billionaire is an adviser to President-elect Donald Trump and was appointed to run the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is tasked with reducing government spending, in the incoming Trump administration.
In June, James Rubin, special representative and coordinator of the GEC, announced the creation of an international group based in Warsaw to counter Russian opposition to the war in Ukraine.
The State Department says the project, known as the Ukraine Communications Group, will bring together governments to coordinate communications, promote accurate military reporting and expose Kremlin manipulation.
In a report last year, the GEC warned that China was spending billions of dollars around the world to spread classified information and threatened to cause a “significant decline” in freedom of expression around the world.