WASHINGTON, December 20. /TASS/. The US Senate plans to allocate $884.7 million to the US Agency for Global Media from the State Department’s fiscal year 2023 budget to counteract Russia in the information sphere in Eastern European countries, according to a Senate Committee on Appropriations’ press statement released on Tuesday.

Under the corresponding bill, budgetary allocations to the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) will be by $24.7 million more in 2023 than in the 2022 fiscal year. The money is meant to strengthen the USAGM’s mission to inform and consolidate audiences across the globe in support of democracy and freedom, including new tools to keep Russia from circumventing broadcasting bans in Eastern Europe.

The US Agency for Global Media is an independent US government agency, whose mission is to promote US ideas and values abroad. It supervises Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and a number of other mass media outlets.

The draft budget is expected to be approved and referred to President Joe Biden for signing later this week.