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The National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit that has had bipartisan support over decades for its work promoting democracy abroad, is suing the U.S. government and cabinet officials for withholding $239 million in congressional appropriations.<\/p>\n
Members of the group\u2019s board, which includes current and former Republican and Democratic politicians, said the organization filed the lawsuit on Wednesday afternoon as a last resort because it had been unable to get the State Department to restart the flow of money.<\/p>\n
The group has had to put about 75 percent of its staff on unpaid leave, and about 1,200 grant recipients have received no money for projects since late January, after President Trump signed an executive order freezing all foreign aid.<\/p>\n
In the lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, the group argues<\/a> that its money from Congress is not foreign aid and does not fall under the purview of the State Department, which manages the transfer of funds, or any other executive branch agency. Withholding the funding, the board members say, is illegal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Peter Roskam, a former Republican congressman from Illinois who chairs the nonprofit, said the board voted on Tuesday to go to court.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d be delighted to learn that this was just an oversight and someone just forgot to hit the send button,\u201d he said in an interview on Wednesday, minutes before the lawsuit was filed. \u201cBut clearly that\u2019s not what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n The endowment\u2019s plight is emblematic of the colossal shift in foreign policy that is taking place in the second Trump administration, as the president tries to move the government away from overseas democracy and human rights work and toward an approach that eschews alliances in favor of a more transactional and nationalistic approach.<\/p>\n Some senior administration officials have adopted language<\/a>, including phrases once common among progressive critics of the U.S. government, about the downside of American projects that seek to extend influence abroad, calling such programs \u201cnation-building\u201d and attempts at \u201cregime change.\u201d<\/p>\n Spokespeople for the White House, the State Department and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Elon Musk, the billionaire adviser to Mr. Trump, posted scathing criticism<\/a> of N.E.D. online last month, saying it was \u201cRIFE with CORRUPTION!!\u201d \u201cThat evil organization needs to be dissolved,\u201d he wrote, using the same conspiratorial language he has employed to describe the U.S. Agency for International Development, which Mr. Musk has helped dismantle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Representative Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican who is Mr. Trump\u2019s pick for ambassador to the United Nations, was on the N.E.D. board until she had to step down to prepare for Senate confirmation for her new job. Senator Todd Young, Republican of Indiana, is currently on the board.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d policy has also been brought into sharp relief in recent weeks by his criticism of Ukraine in its fight against Russia; his imposing of tariffs on allies Canada and Mexico; his insistence on taking mineral-rich Greenland from Denmark, another ally; and his decision to cut off almost all foreign aid, which strategists have seen as an important component of American soft power.<\/p>\n The grants N.E.D. gives out are focused on promoting democracy, free speech and religious freedoms in more than 100 countries and territories, including ones that the first Trump administration and the Biden administration considered rivals or adversaries like China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba. The grants fund projects such as developing software that allows citizens to access banned websites.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mel Martinez, a former Republican senator representing Florida, said the Trump administration\u2019s unwillingness to release funding for organizations that support overseas dissidents was an affront to exiles from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. \u201cThat entire group of people are politically active,\u201d he said. \u201cMany have been strong supporters of the president.\u201d<\/p>\n In Venezuela, for example, grants support independent groups that monitor elections and defend dissidents targeted by the autocratic government.<\/p>\n Authoritarian governments, including those of China and Russia, have denounced<\/a> the work of N.E.D. over many years.<\/p>\n The group traces its origins to a speech<\/a> by President Ronald Reagan to the British Parliament in 1982. He vowed that \u201cthe march of freedom and democracy\u201d would \u201cleave Marxism-Leninism on the ash-heap of history.\u201d Congress passed a law<\/a> establishing N.E.D. the following year.<\/p>\n N.E.D. gives funding to several sister nonprofits, notably the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute. Those groups are also ending programs because of the funding freeze. Several Senate allies of Mr. Trump, including Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, sit on the I.R.I. board.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a defendant in the lawsuit, is a former board member.<\/p>\n