By Rita Cook
Correspondent
Texas Metro News
Late last week President Donald Trump signed an executive order to continue his reduction of the “federal bureaucracy.”
“This order continues the reduction in the elements of the Federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary,” was the statement from the White House.
Let us define bureaucracy: “A system of government in which most of the important decisions are made by state officials rather than by elected representatives.”
In theory, every American should be on board with the ending of state officials running the show versus those we have voted into office.
Some, however, are a bit concerned that the hit list last week, which included The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service; The United States Agency for Global Media; The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution; The Institute of Museum and Library Services; The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness; The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund; and the Minority Business Development Agency, went too far.
The order reads these agencies are unnecessary and “such entities shall reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.”
The order also states regarding these entities that it must be explained, “which components or functions of the governmental entity, if any, are statutorily required and to what extent.”
The cut that has many people the most alarmed is Voice of America, which falls into the United States Agency for Global Media. The Voice of America has for the past 83 years overseen the international state media network funded by the U.S. federal government.
The cut will also include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.
Voice of America has always been the arm of the United States to share U.S. news with other countries. Republicans have said this news media outlet, like many, was blatantly liberal, and in the case of the current administration anti-Trump.
According to the Associated Press the USAGM networks aired in 49 languages and reached as many as 427 million people worldwide.
Also, part of the waste Trump has indicated he is cutting with this executive order is the Institute of Museum and Library Services. That agency has been the go-to for issuing grants to libraries and museums.
Indeed, a few of these cuts are worthy of a head scratch because if this administration is concerned about education, it should also remember that libraries and museums are necessary to continue a strong educational element in the United States.
One red flag to understand why the Institute of Museum and Library Services ended up on the chopping block could be due to the books being allowed in schools that right-leaning voters deemed inappropriate for school age children.
On February 19, Executive Order 14217 was also issued: “Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy.”
At that time, the entities included in that order were The Presidio Trust; The Inter-American Foundation; The United States African Development Foundation; and
The United States Institute of Peace.
In that order it read, “The Presidential Memorandum of November 13, 1961 (Need for Greater Coordination of Regional and Field Activities of the Government),” was also revoked.
As of the beginning of this week Trump has issued 132 executive orders. The most orders affect the Federal Government with 38 actions, the economy takes second place with 25 actions. Other actions include immigration, national security, climate & energy, foreign policy, health, education and 25 uncategorized actions.
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