U.S.-Funded Broadcaster Sells More Than 1,000 Pieces of Gear at Fire-Sale Prices After Funding Lapse

Radio Free Asia (RFA), a nonprofit news organization that receives roughly $60 million a year in U.S. government funding to report across Asia, temporarily suspended operations during a recent funding lapse. While the outlet paused publishing, more than 1,000 pieces of its broadcast equipment appeared for sale on a public auction site, with many items listed at a fraction of typical market value.

What was sold and where

Listings on a public auction platform showed RFA-branded equipment — including high-definition cameras, teleprompters, professional lenses and office appliances such as refrigerators — offered at steeply reduced starting prices. Several entries listed HD cameras for under $1, teleprompters for about $0.90, lenses for less than $1, and a refrigerator at $0.20.

Responses and reactions

The auction prompted immediate criticism. California Representative Darrell Issa, who has advocated restoring RFA’s funding, called the sales a betrayal of taxpayers and accused the organization of "liquidating assets out of spite." He said equipment that normally sells for thousands of dollars was being offered for pennies on the dollar.

"I’ve never seen such belligerence by an organization that gets a hundred percent of its money from the U.S. government," Representative Issa said.

RFA said the decision to reduce operations and put equipment up for sale flowed from a disrupted cash flow during an extended government shutdown and from earlier budget cuts it attributed to a prior administration. In a statement the organization said the funding interruption "forced the company to drastically reduce operational costs" and that shedding unusable equipment was intended to preserve core personnel and essential assets so it could resume operations if funding is restored.

"The Administration’s unlawful termination and disruption of RFA’s timely funding, followed by an extended government shutdown, has forced the company to drastically reduce operational costs to set up for long-term success," RFA said in a statement.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees RFA, disputed that account. A senior official at USAGM said appropriated funds had been provided and criticized the low sale prices as disrespectful to taxpayers. The agency has notified RFA that auditors will review the organization’s actions under the grant agreement and applicable regulations.

"Everything they said was not true," the USAGM representative said. "We are funding them. We’ve given them every single penny appropriated to them. Eighty cents for an HD camera? That’s a slap in the face to taxpayers."

Next steps

RFA says it hopes to rebuild and resume full reporting if Congress and the administration resolve outstanding funding issues. The oversight agency has signaled it will conduct audits and request access to RFA facilities to determine how the organization handled the funding disruption and the equipment sales.

The dispute highlights tensions between a U.S.-funded international broadcaster and its federal overseers over resource management, transparency and the proper use of publicly appropriated funds during periods of fiscal uncertainty.