Rubio announces closure of State Department effort that 'was supposed to be dead already'

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced the closure of a State Department effort that he accused of spending millions on censorship.

"I am announcing the closure of the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI), formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC)," Rubio said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

"Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving," Rubio asserted.

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Sec. of State Marco Rubio shakes hands with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty during a photo opportunity ahead of a meeting in the U.S. State Department Building on Feb. 10, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The GEC closed in December, according to an archived State Department website content that is still viewable online.

Rubio asserted in a piece published on The Federalist that the GEC had not actually ended, but was simply re-branded.

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"When Republicans in Congress sunset GEC’s funding at the end of last year, the Biden State Department simply slapped on a new name. The GEC became the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R-FIMI) office, with the same roster of employees. With this new name, they hoped to survive the transition to the new administration," Rubio wrote. "Today, we are putting that to an end. Whatever name it goes by, GEC is dead. It will not return."

Former House lawmaker Dan Bishop, who is now serving as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, thanked Rubio. "This is the way," the former congressman wrote in a post on X.

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Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wisc., responded to Rubio's announcement, tweeting, "Excellent."