WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd August, 2018) An amendment to the 2019 Defense Appropriations bill to provide the US Department of State with $40 million to fight propaganda and disinformation has been introduced in Congress, Senators Chris Murphy said in a release posted on his website on Wednesday.
"US Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), both members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday introduced an amendment to the FY [fiscal year] 2019 Defense Appropriations bill that would transfer $40 million to the US Department of State for the Global Engagement Center, as authorized in law and agreed to in a joint Memorandum of Agreement, to expose and counter foreign propaganda and influence," the release stated.
The Global Engagement Center is an interagency entity housed at the State Department and tasked with coordinating US counterterrorism messaging to foreign audiences. The entity was created in March 2016 to counter messaging from the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia).
Former President Barack Obama signed the fiscal year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act that expanded the Global Engagement Center's mandate to counter messages from state actors like Russia and China.
Murphy said in the release that countering Russia will take close coordination with all of US allies, but there are precise actions that Congress can take now to strengthen US defenses.
"Fighting propaganda will help small democracies resist Russias interference and stand on their own two feet," Murphy said.
Portman said in the release that the State Department has a plan ready to execute on the allocated funding and the Defense Department is long overdue to transfer the funding with congressional approval.
"The fact that Russia continues to advance their disinformation efforts makes clear the need to ramp up these programs," Portman said. "Now is not the time for us to shortchange them through lack of funding."
The United States has introduced several rounds of sanctions against Russia over the two nations' disagreements on the internal conflict in Ukraine and Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 US election.
Russian officials have repeatedly denied meddling in the US political system saying such allegations have been invented to excuse the election loss of a presidential candidate as well as deflect public opinion from actual instances of election fraud, corruption and other pressing concerns.
