Rep. Banks Opens Front Against Ukrainian NGO That Targeted War Skeptics

Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee have passed a provision that will prohibit funding for Texty.org.ua, a Ukrainian NGO linked to the U.S. State Department that recently published a report on opponents of Ukraine in the United States, which included The American Conservative and several of its writers.

At a full committee markup for the Fiscal Year 20205 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs funding bill on Wednesday, House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee banded together to prevent further government funding of Texty. 

The Appropriation Committee’s decision followed a letter sent by Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) to his Republican colleagues that suggested blocking funding for the Ukrainian NGO. “Federal bureaucrats should not support or partner with foreign groups that attempt to intimidate and silence U.S. citizens and lawmakers,” Banks wrote. “I am urging the Appropriations Committee majority to support efforts in the Fiscal Year 2025 SFOPS bill to force the State Department and USAID to end all relations with foreign NGOs like TEXTY that seek to silence the speech of Americans they dislike and to sway U.S. policymakers to serve their own interests.”

Banks also noted that Texty’s report names 76 organizations and 388 individuals. As TAC previously reported, “TAC is listed as an anti-Ukrainian organization, as are TAC’s Political Editor Bradley Devlin, Senior Editor Sumantra Maitra, and Contributing Editors Micah Meadowcroft, Sohrab Ahmari, James Carden, Doug Bandow (who has written on the subject of Ukraine creating enemy lists of American citizens), and Douglas MacGregor. Dan Caldwell of Defense Priorities and Justin Logan of the Cato Institute, both of whom have written for TAC, also appear on the list.”

The list also includes President Donald Trump and 116 Republican members of the House of Representatives. 

Texty was founded by Anatoly Bondarenko, an instructor for the State Department’s “TechCamp” program, which provides training to foreign journalists, NGOs, and activists. Bondarenko and the State Department publicly flaunt their relationship online—for example, on the TechCamp website. 

Following the Appropriation Committee moving forward with Banks’ suggested provision, the Indiana congressman said in a statement, “I was just designated an ‘opponent of Ukraine,’ after being sanctioned by the Russian regime.” (Banks was sanctioned by Russia in April 2022).

“I’m not bothered by what foreign nations think of me,” the statement continued. “But it’s shameful for our agencies to be using Hoosiers’ tax dollars to collaborate with foreign groups that attempt to intimidate U.S. citizens and lawmakers. I’d like to thank the Republicans on the Appropriations Committee for defunding any such work with the Data Journalism Agency.”