The Smith-Mundt Act is the 1948 federal law, formally the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act, that authorizes the U.S. government to communicate with foreign audiences through news broadcasts, films, and cultural exchanges, and that historically forbade those same materials from being aimed at Americans at home. Named for Senator H. Alexander Smith and Representative Karl E. Mundt, the statute created both the legal basis for Voice of America and the “firewall” that kept government-produced content out of the domestic media market. Congress narrowed that firewall in 2012, and the law is once again in the middle of a live legal fight over whether the broadcasting networks it governs will continue to exist.
Why Congress Passed It
Smith-Mundt was enacted in January 1948, at the opening of the Cold War, to give the State Department a legal framework for countering Soviet propaganda abroad. The statute declared its purpose as promoting “a better understanding of the United States in other countries, and to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.”1United States Agency for Global Media. Smith-Mundt Act – US Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 It authorized the use of press, radio, motion pictures, and other media to describe American life, policy, and institutions to audiences overseas.
The same lawmakers who supported the authority were uneasy about it. Congress worried that giving the State Department the tools to produce persuasive information could put the government in the business of shaping opinion at home, a job Americans expected the free press to do. That worry produced the firewall.
The Original Ban on Domestic Distribution
Under 22 U.S.C. § 1461-1a as originally written, no funds appropriated to the U.S. Information Agency could be “used to influence public opinion in the United States,” and no program material prepared by the agency could be “distributed within the United States.”2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 22 USC 1461-1a – Ban on Domestic Activities by United States Information Agency Voice of America broadcasts, for example, could not lawfully air on U.S. radio stations, and printed materials produced for foreign readers could not be handed out inside the country.
The rule held for more than six decades. It grew awkward once the internet made foreign broadcasts trivially reachable from any American web browser, but the statutory bar on distribution stayed in place.
What the 2012 Modernization Changed
Congress addressed the mismatch through the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, enacted as Section 1078 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 under Public Law 112-239.3United States Agency for Global Media. Smith-Mundt Modernization The amendment rewrote 22 U.S.C. § 1461 to let the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors “make available, in the United States, motion pictures, films, video, audio, and other materials disseminated abroad” when someone requests them and reimburses reasonable costs.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 22 USC 1461 – General Authorization The agencies were also freed to post content on public websites without pretending Americans would not visit them.
The change was not retroactive. Content disseminated abroad before the law took effect on July 2, 2013 follows the older path: it goes to the National Archives 12 years after its initial foreign release, and the Archivist manages any domestic distribution from there.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 22 USC 1461 – General Authorization
What Is Still Prohibited
The 2012 law opened a door in the firewall; it did not knock the wall down. The core funding prohibition survived: no money appropriated to the State Department or the Broadcasting Board of Governors may be “used to influence public opinion in the United States.”5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 22 USC 1461-1a – Clarification on Domestic Distribution of Program Material The agencies may fulfill requests and make content publicly available, but they cannot produce programming aimed at American audiences or actively push their material into the domestic media market. Buying airtime on a local U.S. station to run a Voice of America segment, for instance, would cross the line.
A separate rule of construction says agencies cannot be penalized simply because American audiences encounter their foreign-directed content, but it does not authorize domestic distribution of pre-2013 materials.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 22 USC 1461-1a – Clarification on Domestic Distribution of Program Material The line the statute draws is between incidental exposure, which is fine, and intentional domestic targeting, which is not. USAGM has described the change as letting the agencies “respond positively to requests from within the United States for their content” without changing their focus on foreign audiences.6United States Agency for Global Media. Facts About Smith-Mundt Modernization
One point that surprises people: these restrictions apply only to the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors, now the U.S. Agency for Global Media. They do not bind any other federal department or agency.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 22 USC 1461-1a – Clarification on Domestic Distribution of Program Material The Pentagon, the CIA, and other agencies operate under their own separate authorities.
Which Agencies and Networks the Law Covers
The U.S. Agency for Global Media, known until 2018 as the Broadcasting Board of Governors, is the main federal entity operating under the Smith-Mundt framework.7United States Government Manual. United States Agency for Global Media It oversees or funds several networks that deliver news in dozens of languages, particularly to regions with limited press freedom:
- Voice of America (VOA), the flagship U.S. international broadcaster, which at its peak produced content in nearly 50 languages reaching an estimated 420 million people across more than 100 countries.
- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a grantee network focused on Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East.
- Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN), an Arabic-language grantee serving the Middle East and North Africa.
- Radio Free Asia, covering countries where governments restrict media access.
- The Open Technology Fund, which supports internet freedom tools.
All of these organizations must operate within Smith-Mundt’s requirement that their content targets foreign audiences.
How Americans Can Access the Content
Since 2012, most USAGM-network content is available to Americans through the networks’ own websites, apps, and social media accounts. For materials not posted online, the law lets the agencies fulfill requests and provide “broadcast quality” copies as long as the requester reimburses reasonable costs.6United States Agency for Global Media. Facts About Smith-Mundt Modernization Requests for specific programming should go through the individual networks, not USAGM headquarters.
The Freedom of Information Act is a separate route for obtaining agency records such as budgets, internal correspondence, and editorial decisions.8FOIA.gov. Freedom of Information Act – How to Make a FOIA Request A FOIA request targets agency records broadly; a Smith-Mundt request targets specific program materials disseminated abroad.
Where the Law Stands in 2025 and 2026
The Smith-Mundt framework’s practical significance shifted sharply in 2025, when the Trump administration moved to dismantle USAGM and its networks. Beginning in early 2025, the administration placed hundreds of journalists on administrative leave and announced mass layoffs. Voice of America was reduced from nearly 50 languages to a handful of active services. Grants to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia were terminated or frozen. USAGM’s FY 2026 budget request of $153 million was submitted not to run operations but to pay for what the agency described as the “orderly shutdown of USAGM operations,” including decommissioning overseas transmission stations and covering severance.9U.S. Agency for Global Media. FY 2026 Congressional Budget Justification
Federal courts intervened. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the agency’s acting CEO had served illegally under the Federal Vacancies Act because she had been elevated without Senate confirmation, and that all actions taken during her tenure from July through November 2025 were void. In March 2026, Judge Lamberth ordered the government to reinstate more than 1,000 employees who had been placed on leave or fired, finding that the near-shutdown of Voice of America violated federal administrative law. A D.C. Circuit panel initially lifted some of those orders, but the full appellate bench later left them in place.
The fight exposes a gap the Smith-Mundt Act was never written to close. The statute governs what the agencies may say and to whom. It does not squarely address what happens when an administration decides the agencies should not exist at all, when Congress has appropriated funds for international broadcasting and the executive branch seeks to spend those funds winding the operation down. As of early 2026, court orders requiring continued operations sit against an administration that has requested only shutdown funding, and the question of whether Voice of America and its sister networks will continue in any recognizable form is unresolved.