Voice of America still pays 420 staff on leave $1.6 million a week, inspector general finds

Spread the agency's own estimate of $3.2 million every two weeks across 420 people and each one costs about $7,600 a pay period, or roughly $198,000 a year ^[8][18][19]. Twenty-six pay periods at $3.2 million come to $83.2 million, a little above the $82.8 million Fortune derived from the $1.6 million weekly figure ^[20][5][4]. For that money the government gets no output from an outlet Fortune describes as broadcasting to over 361 million people in 49 languages ^[2]. The inspector general found the stoppage "resulted in lapses" of digital production and broadcasts, with a "significant impact" on "U.S. priorities" ^[11].

Money was part of the stated case. Fortune reports that the March 2025 cuts were made for financial reasons, and in dismantling the outlet the administration said "taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda" ^[3][1]. The payroll savings promised to the union in August 2025 had still not shown up eleven months later, because the legal proceedings over the reduction in force kept 420 people on leave ^[7][22][8]. Fortune's account of the report does not give the dollar figure USAGM projected, so the shortfall against that promise cannot be computed.

The bill ends one of three ways. A ruling that upholds the reduction in force takes the 420 off payroll, and the savings arrive late, net of everything paid in the meantime. Reinstatement turns the $83 million into the wages of people who are working again, inside an agency the March 2025 order told to shrink to the minimum required by law ^[13]. A fight that simply continues costs about $6.9 million a month ^[21]. Judge Royce Lamberth has already rejected the wind-down once. "In short, the defendants had no method or approach towards shutting down USAGM that this Court can discern," he wrote ^[16]. Four months after that ruling, the report still counted 420 on leave ^[15][8].

I think the report undercuts the cost case as it was carried out. After clearing out most of its federal staff and nearly all of its contractors ^[14], the agency is still paying 420 people, about 37% of its pre-order federal headcount, to stay off the job ^[23]. The counter-thesis is that money was never the whole argument. In November 2024, former correspondent Dan Robinson wrote in The Washington Times that VOA "has essentially become a hubris-filled rogue operation often reflecting a leftist bias aligned with partisan national media" ^[12]. Anyone who shares that view will not count an $83 million leave bill against the decision.

The view would be wrong if avoided contractor costs plus the proceeds from disposed equipment and property outweigh the leave pay. That cannot be checked while 99% of the disposal documentation is unverified ^[9]. "Without complete and reliable records, transparency over property and lease management activities is reduced," the report said ^[10]. It also found that "USAGM could not demonstrate that it sufficiently assessed the impact that the loss of experienced personnel would have on operations," and that technical facilities and their support staff were not adequately considered when the agency chose whom to put on leave ^[6][17].