The bill text, which was released on Tuesday before the House and Senate adjourn for Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s holidays, includes a provision that would reauthorize the State Department’s Global Engagement Center. Founded in 2016, the GEC has come under immense public and congressional scrutiny following reports from the Washington Examiner on it granting taxpayer dollars to the Global Disinformation Index and other outside groups working to suppress right-leaning voices online.

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The reversal is significant, since the State Department sent a notification to Congress earlier this month that it had planned to soon terminate the GEC after losing support from Republicans. The GEC, which had an eight-year mandate in 2016 and requires funding to reauthorize, was at the center of investigations in the House Judiciary Committee and House Small Business Committee. There, Republicans issued subpoenas and accused the GEC of orchestrating a speech suppression campaign against conservatives alongside left-wing nonprofit groups and social media companies.

Moreover, the reversal has struck a nerve with conservative Republicans, who view the provision being slipped into the bill text by congressional leaders as a “stunning betrayal,” in the words of one senior Republican aide who was involved with the investigations into the GEC.

“It should have never come to this,” the GOP aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Washington Examiner.

A second Republican aide involved in GEC investigations told the Washington Examiner: “This is literally tearing down the work and wins of Republican-led committees that investigated the GEC. Are we going to add the cost of that investigation to the total cost of this bill?”

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On social media, Republicans expressed their frustrations on Tuesday and Wednesday, with Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) writing on X, “This CR funds the censorship of conservative speech for the entire first year of the Trump administration. Unacceptable!”

Banks recently launched an investigation into the State Department over the GEC appearing to try to link him to Russia falsely. The GEC circulated internal press guidance, leaked and reported on by the New York Post, that sought to discredit reporting from the Washington Examiner and independent journalist Matt Taibbi on the GEC’s ties to speech suppression.

“Bad,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said in response to the release of the provision in the continuing resolution, or CR, bill text.

“Brazen,” said Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC), whom Trump tapped for a high-ranking role in the Office of Management and Budget. The powerful agency plans to work in conjunction with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency to cut wasteful federal spending.

“A vote for the Christmas Cramnibus is a vote for taxpayer-funded censorship. Unbelievable,” Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said.

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In a statement shared with the Washington Examiner, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) office defended the GEC provision.

“Speaker Johnson has killed multiple efforts to pass a 5-year reauthorization of the GEC during the past year, including as recently as the National Defense Authorization Act last week,” a spokesperson for Johnson said. “This bill ensures the incoming Trump Administration has the maximum ability and authority to determine how to handle the office, its authorities, and funding.”

According to a congressional source familiar with the matter, the GEC provision was a demand from Senate Democrats in exchange for Republicans getting a provision aiming to protect small businesses from certain fines approved by the Biden administration under a bill called the Corporate Transparency Act.

The State Department had previously briefed Congress on its plans to absorb the GEC’s functions, which the source said would make it hard to kill the agency, rather than the Trump administration investigating it and having broad discretion.

The State Department declined to comment.

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‘The CR should be called Make America Sick Again’

Still, Republican senators also joined in on the chorus, taking aim at the GEC provision and the house speaker. The Tuesday legislation would extend government funding levels until March 2025 and comes after weeks of congressional negotiations. It is expected to be voted on this week.

“With Republicans who vote for this, who needs Democrats?” asked Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT).

“But we couldn’t possibly help Americans poisoned by their own government’s nuclear radiation. The CR should be called Make America Sick Again,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said, referencing his efforts to pass funding for people sick from radioactive waste exposure. Hawley’s bill on the matter was left out of the must-pass government funding bill.

“The speaker’s been an embarrassment from beginning to end, and the CR is the latest example of this. The CR is a total disaster. Why he continues to be elected as speaker is beyond me,” Hawley also said, according to congressional reporter Max Cohen.

Meanwhile, Ramaswamy also pointed out the GEC provision in a Wednesday social media post, writing on X that the agency is “a key player in the federal censorship state.”

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“We’re grateful for DOGE’s warm reception on Capitol Hill,” Ramaswamy said. “Nearly everyone agrees we need a smaller & more streamlined federal government, but actions speak louder than words. This is an early test. The bill should fail.”

Musk is also, as a whole, opposed to the spending bill.

“This bill should not pass,” Musk wrote on X Wednesday morning.

The GEC is facing a lawsuit from the Federalist, the Daily Wire, and the State of Texas for funding the Global Disinformation Index and a New York-based company called NewsGuard.

The plaintiffs say GEC facilitated “one of the most egregious government operations to censor the American press in the history of the nation,” according to a complaint.

“Mike Johnson is the best speaker Democrats have ever had. And the best part for them is they didn’t even need to win elections to get all the power he’s given them,” Sean Davis, the CEO of the Federalist, posted on X on Wednesday.