Johnson’s Massive CR Extends Censorship Entity’s Life

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House Speaker Mike Johnson is, once again, handing Democrats a gift and the American people a defeat with a massive and irresponsible omnibus spending bill — which includes an extension on a censorship entity that was supposed to be dismantled this year. How can Republicans expect to win the next election if they keep doing the same thing that Democrats would do?

Donald Trump has raised hopes by establishing a new Department of Government Efficiency to slash federal spending and activities, but he and DOGE could find that hard to do in 2025 if this continuing resolution is passed. Among the disturbing provisions of the 1,500-page legislation is a provision for extending the existence of the censorship-funding Global Engagement Center (GEC). The State Department had previously notified Congress that GEC was being dismantled, according to Washington Examiner reporter Gabe Kaminsky, but here comes Johnson to save the day for censors and bring GEC back from the dead. Do Republican leaders just let Democrats write legislation and sign off on whatever it is?

America was already spending more than $1 trillion just to service the debt in September, as government spending fueled inflation. Breitbart reported the current CR is crammed with tens of billions of dollars in pork. As DOGE’s Vivek Ramaswamy said, the bill should fail. A brief glance through the first couple hundred pages of the massive CR reveals a provision on page 139 for “Global Engagement Center Extension.” It states:

Section 1287(j) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 … is amended by striking ‘on the date that is 8 years after the date of the enactment of this Act’ and inserting ‘on the date that is 9 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.’

Which is a lot of words to say the First Amendment means nothing if Congress wants to appease federal bureaucrats.

Kaminsky called attention to the GEC provision: “[T]he agency me and [Matt Taibbi] reported has funded speech suppression efforts and is being sued by the Federalist and Daily Wire” and the state of Texas. Indeed, the Examiner revealed the federal-private collusion to fund entities that push for censorship, including the Global Disinformation Index, which tries to blacklist conservative websites and redirect ad revenue away from them. GDI received funding through Disinfo Cloud, a defunct GEC platform, even though GEC’s own mandate does not allow for such domestic anti-speech activities, per MRC.

🚨BREAKING: The short-term funding bill to avert a government shutdown includes a one-year extension on the State Department’s Global Engagement Center — the agency me and @mtaibbi reported has funded speech suppression efforts and is being sued by the Federalist and Daily Wire pic.twitter.com/fWYaTzVepL

— Gabe Kaminsky (@gekaminsky) December 18, 2024

This CR must not pass, no matter what talking points Johnson spouts to justify it. It is bloated, wasteful, and anti-constitutional in its funding. In fact, it is business as usual in Washington, D.C.; nothing has yet changed in House Republican leadership’s behavior despite the massive GOP victory in the 2024 election. American taxpayers deserve better.