Latest news with #NationalEndowmentforDemocracy
Politico
15 hours ago
- Business
- Politico
Trump-backed judge rules administration's withholding of funds illegal
Trump and his aides have made clear he believes he has the power to 'impound' — or decline to spend — some congressionally required funding if he feels it does not align with his priorities. But that view conflicts with a 51-year-old law known as the Impoundment Control Act, which bars presidents from withholding federal dollars without congressional approval. Friedrich's ruling also comes at a tense moment in the standoff between the White House and Capitol Hill. There, many members of Trump's own party are increasingly nervous about the possibility that budget chief Russ Vought will soon ask lawmakers to codify a second package of funding cuts after insisting on a vote last month to nix $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid. Meanwhile, Vought has openly floated the prospect of submitting a 'pocket rescission' request, which is when the administration sends Congress a clawback request less than 45 days before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 — and regardless of whether Congress decides to act, the White House would treat the funding as expired beginning Oct. 1. The National Endowment for Democracy, founded in 1982 to promote democracy abroad, received a $315 million appropriation for the current fiscal year, and every year since its founding had received access to the full amount of its funding as soon as it was approved by Congress. But that changed in January, amid a blitz by the new Trump administration — backed by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency — to terminate federal programs and contracts en masse. The Endowment sued the Trump administration in March as the organization was unable to access congressionally appropriated funds. Shortly after filing the suit, the Trump administration released a large portion of the withheld dollars, taking the sting out of the organization's legal fight. But in recent weeks, the group said the administration had again started to slow-walk the disbursement of money, including some funds designated as 'no year' funds — meaning they are available to be used without a deadline until they are expended.
Miami Herald
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Cuba's Oswaldo Payá hononed in D.C. amid questions about U.S. support for democracy
To mark another anniversary of the death of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá on Tuesday, the National Endowment for Democracy honored the late Cuban opposition leader in a ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington, an event that highlighted U.S. promotion of democracy and human rights in Cuba and around the world amid questions about the funding for such programs. Payá is one of the best known Cuban dissidents. He was the founder of the Christian Liberation Movement, which spearheaded the Varela Project — a signature-gathering effort for a plebiscite on the country´s political system to use the Cuban constitution to challenge Fidel Castro's rule. He was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European parliament and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by former Czech president and dissident Václav Havel. Payá and the young activist Harold Cepero were killed in 2012 in a car crash provoked by Cuban state security agents, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States, concluded in a 2023 report. Payá's wife, Ofelia Acevedo, and his daughter, Rosa María Payá, who continued his human rights activism in exile in the United States, received the endowment's 2025 Democracy Service Medal on his behalf. 'My father's fight was a deeply Cuban project inspired by faith, rooted in non-violence and centered on the dignity of the human person,' said Rosa María Payá. 'My father's vision was a vision for a free Cuba but also a vision for freedom and democracy in the Americas.' This project of 'liberation,' she said, lives on in the people who took to the streets on the island on July 11, 2021, to protest against the government. 'The Cuban regime is on the brink of collapse, and that means a great opportunity for the Cuban people, but it also brings a great deal of suffering,' she added in reference to the ongoing economic crisis and increased repression on the island. 'Despite misery, despite repression, despite the forced exile imposed on millions of Cubans, the Cuban people are still demanding freedom and protesting in the streets because we are convinced that the only way out of the crisis is to get rid of the dictatorship. The night will not be eternal,' she said, quoting her father. Acevedo recalled how her husband's vision for liberation, rooted in Christian faith, was centered around the idea that people needed to understand they had rights in order to overcome the paralyzing fear that totalitarian regimes instilled in the population. 'This was not an intellectual path,' she added. 'This is why their silence his voice, killed his body and that of Harold Cepero.' Several speakers – including Michael Kozack, the top State Department's official for the Western Hemisphere; former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, and Kenneth Wollack, the Vice Chair of the National Endowment for Democracy, recalled their encounters with Payá and the impression he left on them. 'A humility, a quiet confidence and a sense of faith that made him different, a sense of knowing where he was going, regardless of what was in front of him, regardless of the fear,' Martinez said. That Payá secured 25,000 signatures for the Varela Project from Cubans who were willing to attach their names to the petition exemplifies 'the kind of courage that he instilled in people,' Martinez added. Wollack said Payá 'will be remembered as a founding father of a free and democratic Cuba.' 'He frequently reminded us that the human desire for freedom is universal,' he added. 'He exposed the fiction that democracy can only grow in certain latitudes and the falsehood that liberty must be preceded by prosperity.' Awarded by the endowment's board of directors, the Democracy Service Medals pay tribute to individuals who have made an exceptional personal contribution to the cause of freedom, human rights and democracy. Notable past recipients include the Dalai Lama, Taiwan's former President Tsai Ing-wen, and Poland's former president, dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa. Over the years, U.S. policy supporting human rights defenders in Cuba has garnered bipartisan support, as reflected in the lineup of speakers at the event that included senators Ted Cruz, a Republican, and Dick Durbin, a Democrat, as well as Florida Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Florida U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, a Republican, was scheduled to speak but could not attend. Díaz-Balart and Wasserman Schultz reintroduced a bipartisan bill on Monday that would rename the street in front of the Cuban Embassy in Washington as 'Oswaldo Payá Way.' Cruz and Durbin said they will support a similar measure in the Senate. Support for Cuba democracy programs For different reasons, U.S. support for human rights and democracy in Cuba has been in the spotlight recently. In a twist, after pushing the Inter-American Commission for years to complete the investigation into her father's death, Rosa Maria Payá won a seat on it, after the United States nominated her to serve as a commissioner. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Cuban American, campaigned on her behalf and praised her in a statement, calling her a voice that 'would strengthen the Commission's ability to speak out clearly in defense of those facing repression, censorship and abuse.' Following her election, Payá vowed to make the human rights situation in Cuba and other countries under dictatorships in the Americas a pressing issue for the commission. 'The Americas have paid a very high price for tolerating the Cuban regime for so long,' she said in a statement after her election. 'Our region faces profound crises that seriously affect human rights: the crisis in Haiti, millions of forced migrants, increasing violence by non-state actors, and political persecution, often caused or exacerbated by the three dictatorships established on the continent,' Payá told the Miami Herald. 'The Commission can and should realign its priorities to respond to these grave challenges and offer OAS states concrete and actionable recommendations in defense of democracy in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, whose regime is at the head of the authoritarian octopus affecting the continent.' Since taking office, President Donald Trump and Rubio have taken actions to restore what they called 'a tough Cuba policy,' designating Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism and imposing more sanctions on entities controlled by the Cuban military. The State Department has also expanded visa sanctions to officials linked to the Cuban medical official missions abroad. To mark the fourth anniversary of the islandwide July 11 uprising in 2021, the State Department imposed visa restrictions on Cuba's leader, Miguel Díaz-Canel, and other top officials for what it called their involvement in 'gross violations of human rights.' Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau also met virtually with Cuban activists in Havana to advocate for political prisoners and support democracy amid heightened diplomatic tensions and Cuban government accusations against the U.S. At the same time, some early cuts to democracy programs in Cuba have created controversy, particularly in Miami, where many of the affected groups operate. Broader administration efforts to reduce U.S. foreign aid and dismantle the Voice of America have impacted several institutions providing support to Cuban activists and independent media, as well as the transmissions of Radio Martí and its website, Martí Noticias. While some of those decisions have been reversed, questions remain about the future of the programs amid ongoing legal battles. A recent State Department reorganization that reduced the size of its Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, known as DRL, has also sparked broader questioning of the administration's commitment to advancing democratic values worldwide. The State Department denies that's the case. 'DRL was not eliminated and many of their Cuba programs remain,' a State Department spokesperson said. 'The State Department undertook a significant and historic reorganization to better align our programs with the America First foreign policy priorities. The reorganization does not signal a retreat from promoting democracy or supporting human rights in Cuba.' The spokesperson said the promotion of democracy and human rights in Cuba are 'top priority' for the U.S. Embassy in Havana. Given Díaz-Balart's prominent role in the making of the government's budget –as vice chair of the House Appropriations Committee and chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee on National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs – it is likely Congress will continue to fund at least some Cuba-related democracy promotion programs. His appropriation bill to fund the State Department and other foreign operations for fiscal year 2026 allocates $40 million 'to promote democracy and strengthen civil society in Cuba, including supporting political prisoners.' It requests $40 million to fund the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which manages the Martí stations, despite the administration being involved in a legal battle to shut down the office's parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media. The $40 million is part of a $681 million budget for 'international communication activities.' The State Department requested only $153 million 'to enable the orderly shutdown' of the agency's operations. Against this background, Wasserman Schultz called on maintaining U.S. support to democracy promotion on Tuesday's event. 'Solidarity must be match with action and that's where the Nationall Endowment for Democracy plays such an essential role,' she said. 'At a time authoritarianism is resurgent, when regimes grow bolder in their censorship, surveillance and suppression, the United States must meet the moment,' she said. 'That means fully funding democracy assistance efforts, protecting NED, its core entities, from short sighted cuts, and that means recognizing support for democracy, not as security, but as strategic necessity, as moral imperative [and] an indispensable component of our national security.' Cuts to NED's funding For NED, the opportunity to highlight its work on supporting pro-democracy and human rights activists in Cuba comes at a time when the organization is trying to make a case to the administration that promoting democratic values worldwide is key to U.S. national interests. The NED is an independent foundation directly funded by Congress annually. Just around 5% of its funds come from the State Department's foreign assistance budget. Still, the organization was targeted in early efforts by the Trump administration to freeze foreign assistance funds, and for several weeks, the administration withheld NED's funding, including money directly allocated by Congress. After NED sued the administration, funds were made available again. However, the organization announced in June that it had reduced its workforce by 35% as part of a 'transformation driven by financial pressures.' After a review, the State Department ultimately canceled some of the foreign assistance funds allocated to the endowment, including funds the organization had budgeted for new grants to Cuba-focused organizations this year. That forced NED to cut back on some programs to maintain its support to about 30 Cuban independent media and human rights organizations, a source with knowledge of the cuts said. The State Department did not request a budget for NED, nor did it request money for the agency's democracy fund for the upcoming fiscal year 2026, which starts in October. But Díaz-Balart's chief of staff, César González, said Tuesday there is 'robust funding' for the endowment in the State Department's appropriations bill under discussion. Díaz-Balart's bill maintains NED's funding for fiscal year 2026 at similar levels to previous years, setting aside $315 million for the organization and its core institutes, including approximately $105 million specifically for democracy programs. There's an additional $345 million 'democracy fund' for the State Department, and instructions for the agency to use $2.3 billion from different budget allocations 'for democracy programs in adversarial, anti-American countries, countries whose malign activities pose a national security threat to the United States, or countries seeking to strengthen democratic institutions and processes.' The bill still needs to be approved by the full House and then the Senate before it is sent to Trump for final approval. Tying the two themes of the night, NED's president Damon Wilson said that 'honoring Payá tonight affirms all of our commitment to stand with human people until they are free. So we are so grateful for the congressional support that ensures the American people will continue to stand by those who risk everything for the cause of liberty.'
AllAfrica
11-07-2025
- Politics
- AllAfrica
Trump is killing civic participation in global tech governance
Not long ago US foreign assistance, alongside European and multilateral donors, helped sustain a global ecosystem of civil society efforts to safeguard democratic oversight of public policy – and, more recently, frontier technologies. I know this work well: I served with USAID for more than a dozen years, advancing democratic governance and building civil society as essential counterweights to unchecked private and abusive public power. Now, civil society's financial lifeline is being severed and that ecosystem is being dismantled — deliberately and in plain sight. The new American regime's decision to gut USAID, freeze funding for the National Endowment for Democracy, dismantle the US Institute of Peace, quit international organizations such as WHO and withdraw funding from other multilateral institutions including UN Agencies and (reportedly) NATO, is not a scattershot retrenchment. It is a coordinated retreat from the very idea that civic voices have a role in shaping global policy — particularly around the governance of frontier technologies like AI, surveillance systems and biotech. And that's precisely the point. Civil society is not collateral damage in this regime. It's the target. For years, civil society organizations and academic institutions around the world — many supported and financed by USAID and its ecosystem of partners — have helped build the infrastructure for the field of democratic tech governance. They've trained civic actors in digital rights and policy engagement, funded citizen labs that assess individual and societal risks of emerging technologies and provided indispensable funding for civil society to be able to show up at key moments where voices to hold tech firms accountable to public interest standards are most needed. They've ensured governments have access to technical support, independent research and multistakeholder processes to shape digital policy with democratic values at the center. But that is now being unraveled. By design. After all, if you don't have money, you can't travel, can't participate, can't be heard. Can't hold power to account. The Donald regime has already rescinded President Joe Biden's AI Safety Executive Order, replacing it with what amounts to sweet subsidies and deregulation for his tech billionaire buddies. At the same time, USAID's digital governance programs have been shut down. The agency's public-facing digital archives have disappeared from the web. Entire ecosystems of civic engagement — global conferences, advisory panels, technical assistance platforms — have been hobbled. You don't need to burn libraries to erase memory. In the digital age, you just take down the websites. This collapse is not limited to far-flung democracies. The same playbook is now being deployed domestically. Universities, research centers and civic infrastructure inside the US — many of which play crucial roles in public-interest tech policy — are already under attack. With the international scaffolding removed, the regime is turning inward. And the timing couldn't be worse. At the very moment the world needs stronger, more inclusive digital governance, the space for democratic participation is shrinking. Who fills that void? The answer is clear: authoritarians, opportunists and tech oligarchs. Donald and Elon may present themselves as disruptors, but they are really architects of a new oligarchic order. Their vision for global tech governance is one in which civil society is absent, democratic guardrails are gone and the rulemaking is done in private boardrooms, not public forums, by hyper-masculine white dudes. It is no accident that USAID — an agency unknown to many Americans and politically vulnerable — was first on the chopping block. It was the proof of concept. With little domestic constituency to defend it, few noticed when decades of work supporting civic participation, especially in the Global South, vanished overnight. And with it, the very notion that technology should serve people, not just profit. Unless others step up — the Global Majority with financial support from Europe, the EU, civic coalitions around the world — we risk ceding the entire digital governance agenda to those who view democracy and diverse lived experiences as an obstacle. Digital democracy won't defend itself. It must be deliberately built, protected, and expanded. That means investing in civic infrastructure, funding public-interest tech efforts, and ensuring that democratic participation — globally and domestically — is not a luxury, but a prerequisite. Because when civil society is no longer allowed to help shape the rules, it won't just be tech that is unaccountable. It will become power itself. Michael L. Bąk is a Thailand-based expert on civic participation and democratic governance of frontier technology and a non-resident senior fellow (cyber policy) at NYU Center for Global Affairs; co-founder of Sprint Public Interest, a research agency; and an advisor at the Centre for AI Leadership in Singapore. He served with USAID in Southeast and East Asia and was head of public policy at Facebook. He works with civil society, governments and academia as countervailing forces to big tech's accumulating, private power. He has lived most of his life in Southeast Asia.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - National Endowment for Democracy cuts are penny-wise, pound-foolish
One of the most important experiences of my career as a foreign correspondent was watching Latin American countries turn from dictatorships to democracies through the power of citizens. In the 1990s, as the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union crumbled, I watched as lines of campesinos who had walked for days in the mountains of Guatemala cast their votes and proudly showed off their purple-inked thumbs. In those days, the National Endowment for Democracy and the State Department played vital roles supporting nascent democracies, from Eastern Europe to Latin America to Asia and Africa. We are now in a new era, dominated at home by a ferocious attention to cutting the budget deficit and the national debt. The Office of Management and Budget has proposed that State Department funding be cut in half and that programs such as democracy promotion eliminated. In a hearing last month of the House Appropriations subcommittee, chaired by Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), the heads of the National Endowment for Democracy's National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute came to plead their case for resumption of programs already approved for this fiscal year and their entities' future survival. Since its arrival in office, the Trump administration has halted 92 of 95 programs of the International Republican Institute, according to its president, Dan Twining. The institute has closed all 64 of its offices abroad and fired up to 85 percent of its staff. National Democratic Institute President Tamara Wittes testified that 97 of its 93 awards were terminated, three-fourths of its offices closed and about 1,000 people fired. Total funding for the NED represents 1 percent of the foreign assistance budget, which itself represents 1 percent of the total U.S. government budget. Both leaders testified that the return on a relatively small sum of $660 million has provided critical support for democracy, including nonpartisan training for election monitors, technical support to political parties across the spectrum, and incorporation of women into democratic political processes. In post-war countries from Lebanon to West Africa, the National Endowment for Democracy has helped countries bring disabled veterans and survivors of conflict to the polls on election day, to forestall backsliding into conflict. One of the most promising areas is the use of technology. Since 2008, the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Rights and Labor has invested more than $320 million in global internet freedom programs to counter censorship and provide internet access. The bureau provided VPN communications for democracy activists, including the massive Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran, the largest anti-regime protest in decades. During the first Trump administration, funding for the bureau quadrupled, with vital backing from South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Since January, however, 95 percent of its programs are suspended, jeopardizing its key focus on countering China's influence and other repressive regimes. The fight is not only in China and Iran; in fact, the contest between democracy and authoritarianism is just as acute and far-flung as it was in the waning days of the Cold War. Most of the world's population today lives in authoritarian countries or in backsliding democracies. Only 87 countries, comprising about 20 percent of the world's population, are stable democracies, according to the latest Freedom House report. The endowment and the State Department have helped countries counter Russian destabilization in Central and Eastern Europe and in the conflicted Western Balkans with nonpartisan support to government, civil society and independent media. The National Endowment for Democracy was preparing to help ensure fair elections in Ukraine until funds were cut. Aid has stopped to Moldova, where a Russian-backed campaign nearly derailed a popular government in the fall, leaving open the possibility of similar interference in the coming parliamentary elections. Romania's election was annulled after the presidency was nearly captured through a shadowy influence campaign by coordinated TikTok accounts, undisclosed payments and algorithmic amplification of the virtually unknown ultranationalist candidate's bid for office, according to Romanian intelligence. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that foreign assistance will be held to a new standard under his helm, requiring that programs demonstrably make the U.S. 'safer, stronger or more prosperous to justify their existence.' Over the years, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Bureau of Democracy, Rights and Labor can claim to have contributed to this outcome, although officials — including Twining — allow that some programs can be sharpened or held to a higher standard. Rubio himself has championed many of these programs. As a senator, he sponsored legislation banning clothing imports made with Uighur slave labor. And Diaz-Balart, his fellow Cuban American, bestowed a National Endowment for Democracy award on a bishop in Nicaragua, a country that is still struggling to return to the democracy it briefly enjoyed in the early 1990s. With support from the endowment, Guatemala's new government has made progress in reducing migration, as Rubio recognized on his first trip abroad as secretary. And Venezuela's opposition provided proof that they were defrauded of victory last fall, through a meticulous organizing and poll-monitoring effort supported by the U.S. Rubio's proposal to fold the Bureau of Democracy, Rights and Labor into a new, expanded directorate of foreign assistance and human rights might produce new synergy and effectiveness. But unless the new directorate is empowered with senior staff and expert personnel, its span of control could be challenged, with such a wide array of responsibilities as State's major action arm for deploying all foreign and humanitarian aid and overseeing the daily execution and results. Leaders of the congressional foreign relations committees have already indicated they will closely scrutinize the proposed reorganization for its ability to carry out statutory functions established by Congress. Twining and Wittes, among others, argue that democracy programs are among the most cost-effective investments the U.S. government makes. The outside auditor, Grant Thornton, delivered a clean audit of the endowment's financial statements in March, for the 10th straight year. These small sums are dwarfed by China's $60 billion annual spending on Belt and Road projects around the world and its growing purchase of local media outlets to influence public opinion. This penny-wise approach will make it far easier for the rest of the world to turn, no questions asked, to Russia and China. Linda Robinson received the Maria Moors Cabot Prize and the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Reporting on National Defense and was a Nieman Fellow in 2001. She is now senior fellow for women and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
02-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
National Endowment for Democracy cuts are penny-wise, pound-foolish
One of the most important experiences of my career as a foreign correspondent was watching Latin American countries turn from dictatorships to democracies through the power of citizens. In the 1990s, as the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union crumbled, I watched as lines of campesinos who had walked for days in the mountains of Guatemala cast their votes and proudly showed off their purple-inked thumbs. In those days, the National Endowment for Democracy and the State Department played vital roles supporting nascent democracies, from Eastern Europe to Latin America to Asia and Africa. We are now in a new era, dominated at home by a ferocious attention to cutting the budget deficit and the national debt. The Office of Management and Budget has proposed that State Department funding be cut in half and that programs such as democracy promotion eliminated. In a hearing last month of the House Appropriations subcommittee, chaired by Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), the heads of the National Endowment for Democracy's National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute came to plead their case for resumption of programs already approved for this fiscal year and their entities' future survival. Since its arrival in office, the Trump administration has halted 92 of 95 programs of the International Republican Institute, according to its president, Dan Twining. The institute has closed all 64 of its offices abroad and fired up to 85 percent of its staff. National Democratic Institute President Tamara Wittes testified that 97 of its 93 awards were terminated, three-fourths of its offices closed and about 1,000 people fired. Total funding for the NED represents 1 percent of the foreign assistance budget, which itself represents 1 percent of the total U.S. government budget. Both leaders testified that the return on a relatively small sum of $660 million has provided critical support for democracy, including nonpartisan training for election monitors, technical support to political parties across the spectrum, and incorporation of women into democratic political processes. In post-war countries from Lebanon to West Africa, the National Endowment for Democracy has helped countries bring disabled veterans and survivors of conflict to the polls on election day, to forestall backsliding into conflict. One of the most promising areas is the use of technology. Since 2008, the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Rights and Labor has invested more than $320 million in global internet freedom programs to counter censorship and provide internet access. The bureau provided VPN communications for democracy activists, including the massive Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran, the largest anti-regime protest in decades. During the first Trump administration, funding for the bureau quadrupled, with vital backing from South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Since January, however, 95 percent of its programs are suspended, jeopardizing its key focus on countering China's influence and other repressive regimes. The fight is not only in China and Iran; in fact, the contest between democracy and authoritarianism is just as acute and far-flung as it was in the waning days of the Cold War. Most of the world's population today lives in authoritarian countries or in backsliding democracies. Only 87 countries, comprising about 20 percent of the world's population, are stable democracies, according to the latest Freedom House report. The endowment and the State Department have helped countries counter Russian destabilization in Central and Eastern Europe and in the conflicted Western Balkans with nonpartisan support to government, civil society and independent media. The National Endowment for Democracy was preparing to help ensure fair elections in Ukraine until funds were cut. Aid has stopped to Moldova, where a Russian-backed campaign nearly derailed a popular government in the fall, leaving open the possibility of similar interference in the coming parliamentary elections. Romania's election was annulled after the presidency was nearly captured through a shadowy influence campaign by coordinated TikTok accounts, undisclosed payments and algorithmic amplification of the virtually unknown ultranationalist candidate's bid for office, according to Romanian intelligence. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that foreign assistance will be held to a new standard under his helm, requiring that programs demonstrably make the U.S. 'safer, stronger or more prosperous to justify their existence.' Over the years, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Bureau of Democracy, Rights and Labor can claim to have contributed to this outcome, although officials — including Twining — allow that some programs can be sharpened or held to a higher standard. Rubio himself has championed many of these programs. As a senator, he sponsored legislation banning clothing imports made with Uighur slave labor. And Diaz-Balart, his fellow Cuban American, bestowed a National Endowment for Democracy award on a bishop in Nicaragua, a country that is still struggling to return to the democracy it briefly enjoyed in the early 1990s. With support from the endowment, Guatemala's new government has made progress in reducing migration, as Rubio recognized on his first trip abroad as secretary. And Venezuela's opposition provided proof that they were defrauded of victory last fall, through a meticulous organizing and poll-monitoring effort supported by the U.S. Rubio's proposal to fold the Bureau of Democracy, Rights and Labor into a new, expanded directorate of foreign assistance and human rights might produce new synergy and effectiveness. But unless the new directorate is empowered with senior staff and expert personnel, its span of control could be challenged, with such a wide array of responsibilities as State's major action arm for deploying all foreign and humanitarian aid and overseeing the daily execution and results. Leaders of the congressional foreign relations committees have already indicated they will closely scrutinize the proposed reorganization for its ability to carry out statutory functions established by Congress. Twining and Wittes, among others, argue that democracy programs are among the most cost-effective investments the U.S. government makes. The outside auditor, Grant Thornton, delivered a clean audit of the endowment's financial statements in March, for the 10th straight year. These small sums are dwarfed by China's $60 billion annual spending on Belt and Road projects around the world and its growing purchase of local media outlets to influence public opinion. This penny-wise approach will make it far easier for the rest of the world to turn, no questions asked, to Russia and China. Linda Robinson received the Maria Moors Cabot Prize and the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Reporting on National Defense and was a Nieman Fellow in 2001. She is now senior fellow for women and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.
