Judge: "the defendants thumb their noses at Congress’s commands and give responses that are dripping with indifference to their statutory obligations." Image: DCStockPhotography/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffA federal judge has temporarily blocked a RIF of some 500 employees at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, including most of its component Voice of America, saying a pause is needed to determine compliance with an earlier order requiring the agency to carry out its legal obligations.
The decision by District Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia touches on an issue common to challenges to job cuts at other agencies; they assert that they will leave the agencies unable to meet their missions as defined and funded by Congress, and therefore go beyond a President’s discretion to manage the federal workforce.
The judge directed that the RIF, announced in late August, “may NOT be implemented, effectuated, or completed in any way” pending a decision on whether the Trump administration is complying with his order requiring that the VOA restore its programming “such that USAGM fulfills its statutory mandate that VOA ‘serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news.’”
That was one of three directives in favor of the AFGE and AFSCME unions sponsoring the case that the judge initially issued; while the other two were stayed on appeal, that portion remained in effect. Over the last several months the issue has been whether the agency is in compliance.
The latest ruling says that “Time and time again, the defendants have resisted the Court’s efforts to obtain information concerning whether they have fashioned a plan for compliance” with that order . . . and instead have been running out the clock on the fiscal year while remaining in violation of even the most meager reading of USAGM and Voice of America’s statutory obligations.”
Judge Lamberth wrote that for example, a law requires the VOA to broadcast into North Korea, “And yet there is no question that VOA has failed to broadcast in Korean, in violation of both plain statutory text and this Court’s preliminary injunction.” The same applies regarding obligations to broadcast in other languages, including those of eastern Europe and the Middle East, he wrote, adding that “the defendants thumb their noses at Congress’s commands and give responses that are dripping with indifference to their statutory obligations.”
The RIF “would further impede the defendants’ ability to operate Voice of America consistent with statutory requirements and the preliminary injunction,” he wrote.
He added: “The Court certainly does not take the position that any particular level of staffing at VOA or USAGM should constitute a fixed benchmark for minimum statutory compliance, and appreciates that continued proceedings will likely result in eventual reductions in force. Pausing the proposed RIF is not an end in itself, but a means toward a resolution of this case, and an implementation of the Executive Branch’s goals, that complies with applicable law.”
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