The National Fund for People is a nonprofit that has received decades of bipartisan support for work promoting democracy overseas.
Members of the group’s board of directors, including current and former Republicans and Democrats, said the organization filed a lawsuit as a last resort after failing to resume money flows with the State Department on Wednesday afternoon.
The group is also asking the courts to prevent the government from withholding future funds allocated by the parliament.
The group has to put about 75% of its staff on unpaid leave, and about 1,800 grant projects have not received money since late January after President Trump signed an executive order to freeze all foreign aid.
In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, The group insists Money from Congress is not foreign aid and does not fall within the scope of the State Department that controls funds or other administrative agencies. If you withhold funds, board members say it’s illegal.
Peter Rosscum, a former Republican Rep. from Illinois who chairs the nonprofit, said he voted to go to court on Tuesday.
“This was just an oversight and I’m happy to know that someone forgot to press the send button,” he said in an interview Wednesday minutes before the lawsuit was filed. “But obviously that’s not what’s going on.”
The light letter of funds represents the enormous changes in foreign policy taking place in the Second Trump administration as the president seeks to move government away from work towards a more bare, transactional and nationalist approach to a more bare, transactional and nationalist approach.
Trump has tried to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, which was defeated by Joseph R. Biden Jr. The House voted to fire each of him a second time to incite a riot against lawmakers who proved Biden’s victory.
Some senior managers have adopted a language that once includes phrases that are common among progressive critics of the US government, calling such programs an attempt at “national construction” and “change of administration” and including phrases about the downsides of American projects seeking to expand influence across society overseas.
Representatives from the White House, the State Department or the Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Posted by Elon Musk, Trump’s billionaire adviser A scathing criticism Last month, he said that of the Democratic Online National Fund, it stated without providing evidence that it is “full of corruption”! “The evil organization needs to be dissolved,” he wrote. He used the same conspiracy language that Musk adopted to describe the US International Development Agency that helped him to dismantle it.
President Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican whom Trump chose for the UN ambassador, joined the National Fund for the Democracy Commission until she had to step down to prepare for the Senate confirmation for her new job. Sen. Todd Young, a Republican of Indiana, is currently on the board.
Trump’s “America First” policy has also been caught up in sharp relief in recent weeks due to his criticism of democratic Ukraine in his defensive battle with Russia. It imposed high tariffs on two allies, Canada and Mexico. His insistence on bringing mineral-rich Greenland from another ally, Denmark. and his decision to cut off almost all foreign aid in the United States, which strategists consider to be an important element of American soft power.
The Democracy State Fund focuses on promoting democracy, freedom of speech and religious freedom in over 100 countries and territories, including those that consider rivals or enemies – China, Russia, Belarus, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba.
Grant Fund projects such as the development of software that allows citizens to see efforts to support banned websites and independent journalism.
One of China Labour Monitoring, a New York-based group with overseas offices, monitors forced labor and human trafficking among Chinese workers. Its founder Li Qiang said in an interview that he has not received national donations for the Democratic Fund, which he had anticipated this year, and that direct funds from the State Department are still frozen. He had to lay off workers and take unpaid leave.
Mel Martinez, a former Republican senator representing Florida, said the Trump administration, which frees funds for organizations supporting dissidents abroad, is a humiliation to exiles from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. “The whole group of people is politically active,” he said. “Many of them were strong supporters of the president.”
In Venezuela, the National Fund for Democracy Grants supports independent groups that monitor elections and provide legal defense to dissidents targeted by dictatorial governments.
Authoritarian governments, including the Chinese and Russian governments, have Condemnation A long-standing donation work.
The lawsuit, with the suspension of further halts of funds at the further risk of living under hostile governments, “freezing donation funds poses a special risk to partners operating in a highly authoritarian context.
The group tracks its origins speech In 1982, President Ronald Reagan was heading to the British Parliament. He vowed that “the March of Freedom and Democracy” would “leave Marxism Reninin to the top of the ashes of history.” meeting Passed the law The following year, we established a national fund for democracy.
The fund funds several sister nonprofit organizations, particularly the International Republican Institute and the National Institute of Democracy. These groups have concluded the programme due to a fundraising freeze. Trump’s Senate allies, including Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, sit on the International Republican Institute Committee.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the defendant in the lawsuit, is a former board member.
Republican Group Website Although he says he had to disable the business to save money, Page says, “Don’trators are afraid of their people. Helping citizens make a voice in their own country is at the heart of what the IRI is doing.”
Last November, posts on the group’s X social media accounts were now abolished, congratulating Rubio on his election as Trump’s Secretary of State and calling him the “major champion of freedom.”
David Super, a professor studying administrative law at Georgetown University, said the National Fund for Democracy Litigation was a lawsuit filed by the USAID contracting company and the Trump administration frozen funds for the agency. In both cases, Congress passed “clear and mandatory approval and budget laws,” Super said. Withdrawalking from the donation, he said it was “clearly violating both laws.”
