Republican Senator Eric Schmitt has addressed the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, asking for the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) to be cut off from temporary government funding that’s currently negotiated in Congress.
Schmitt – who was, as Missouri attorney-general, behind the Missouri v. Biden free speech lawsuit (that became Murthy v. Missouri) said in a post on X that GEC “must be excluded from any subsequent piece of legislation for the remainder of the 118th Congress.”
The senator added that Americans “deserve to know their First Amendment rights are being protected.”
The letter to Schumer reveals that the temporary funding measure, known as “continuing resolution (CR)” among its original 1,500 pages provides for GEC as well.
(It has sine been removed from the slimmer bill that passed on Friday.)
We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.
This office has been the subject of scrutiny by legislators and public for finding a way to flag social media posts for censorship, despite being a part of the government.
Critics say this rendered its activities, conducted with third parties and affecting speech on social media, unconstitutional.
Democrats had hoped to get the CR approved through mid-March (but would extend GEC for another year) – however, President Trump, and consequently Republicans dashed their hopes of reaching a quick, bipartisan deal.
Now Schmitt’s letter shows one of the many objections Republicans have to the proposed CR, slamming it as an example of backroom deals that fly in the face of “transparency, accountability, and responsible government.”
Schmitt notes that GEC was set up to combat foreign propaganda, but then “mutated” into a censorship-facilitating outfit suppressing speech at home on a mass scale.
The senator states that since the target of censorship were narratives which “questioned established thinking” and involved a number of powerful actors (the government, social media), this “risks creating a government-endorsed ‘truth’ immune to public scrutiny.”
And, essentially – there goes true democracy, starting with the First Amendment.
For these reasons, Schmitt urges Schumer to make sure that GEC “under no circumstances” continues to receive public money.
The Republican senator is severely critical of the “giant ‘Christmas tree’ spending bill” itself, not only for undermining trust in government and the country’s institutions but also, due to its size and the rush to adopt it, for “slipping into the text” policies that would have GEC renewed and funded.
Schmitt therefore demands to exclude GEC from any legislation considered by the current Congress.
“I will strongly oppose any end-of-year bills that includes reauthorization or funding of the GEC and urge my colleagues to do the same,” Schmitt’s letter concludes.
