Dozens of Republicans voted alongside Democrats to reject a GOP-led effort to pull federal funding from an organization linked to bias against conservatives.
In a 127-291 vote, lawmakers refused to cut funding for the State Department’s democracy-promotion programs, such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) introduced the amendment to defund NED in May.
According to Crane’s office, NED “evolved into a key contributor to global censorship campaigns, domestic propaganda, and regime change politics” after being established in 1983.
Crane wrote on X following the Wednesday vote, “Tonight, the Uniparty rejected my amendment to defund NED. 81 ‘republicans’ voted with democrats to fund this rogue organization that fuels global censorship and domestic propaganda.”
In May, the White House recommended fully defunding NED. “Under the Biden Administration and at the start of the Russia/Ukraine war, the NED blocked public access to its grant details after having never provided disclosure in the manner required by Federal law,” Russel Vought, Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget, wrote to Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“In March 2025, it was discovered that NED funded the Ukraine disinformation organization that doxed U.S. journalists called for prosecutions of allies of the President, and attacked the Vice President, Joe Kent, and others as ‘foreign propagandists of the Russian Federation,'” the statement continued. “NED also funded the now-infamous Disinformation Index Foundation that targeted and blacklisted conservative media outlets like Federalist, Newsmax, TAC, the Blaze, NYP, etc. The Budget eliminates funding for NED.”
