The East-West Center, which has suspended “nonessential expenditures” since being cut off from federal funding by the U.S. Department of State at the start of Donald Trump’s administration, received $5 million in previously appropriated money Thursday.
The center had been without federal funds since Trump took over the government. It has been burning through its financial reserves to stay afloat.
State Department officials did not immediately reply to Honolulu Star-Advertiser questions about why it stopped paying for the East-West Center despite congressional approval of the funds.
The center started as a University of Hawaii at Manoa faculty initiative in 1959, before Congress set it up in 1960 to strengthen American academic, cultural and political ties with nations throughout Asia and the Pacific through exchanges and research.
It receives about 52% of its total budget from the federal government, roughly $22 million a year.
“However, due to continued uncertainty, the Center’s measures to suspend nonessential expenditures remain in effect,” EWC Communications Director Derek Ferrar told the Star- Advertiser. “Due to a recent pause in U.S. State Department grant dispersals and the potential for a federal government shutdown when budget legislation expires in mid-March, East-West Center’s leadership has taken proactive measures to suspend nonessential expenditures until the funding outlook is clearer.”
EWC leaders continue to stay in “close touch with federal liaisons” to gather more information and evaluate “potential impacts.”
“As always, the Center remains dedicated to our statutory mission, enshrined in federal law, to promote better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue,” Ferrar said.
The East-West Center, with a 21-acre Honolulu campus next to the University of Hawaii at Manoa, is a nonprofit organization funded by the federal government, private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations and governments in the Asia-Pacific region.
For 65 years it has served as a “U.S.-based institution for public diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific region with international governance, staffing, students, and participants. The Center has built a worldwide network of more than 70,000 alumni and 1,100 partner organizations,” according to its website.
The East-West Center’s Washington, D.C., office focuses on “preparing” the United States for an era of growing Asia-Pacific prominence.
U.S. Rep. Ed Case told the Star-Advertiser that the East-West Center is one of Hawaii’s “preeminent institutions and an invaluable part of our country’s interrelationships with the Indo-Pacific.”
“It has been highly dependent on federal funding, which I have strongly supported in my House Appropriations Committee and otherwise. I have urged EWC for years now to diversify its funding sources to protect against attempted reductions in its federal funding, which totals $22 million in the current year, down from around 70% just three years ago to about 52% of its total budget,” said Case. “As part of its unfortunate and counterproductive attack on foreign assistance, on February 12th the Trump administration paused current Fiscal Year 2025 already-appropriated and enacted funding to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which is one of the main federal programs on which EWC relies.”
The pause was scheduled to last 15 days but extended into March, “causing great disruption in EWC’s external contracts and general finances,” Case said.
U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono did not respond to Star-Advertiser requests for comment.
The extended pause in “this and other foreign assistance programs” has been subject to litigation as “unconstitutional and illegal” since it seeks to halt money already appropriated and signed into law, and “federal courts have ordered the current year funding to be paid,” Case said.
“We have worked closely with EWC to address this disruption, and the withheld funding of approximately $5 million has been released. We will continue to advocate for the full release to EWC of all appropriated and enacted FY 2025 federal funding,” Case said. “While this addresses the immediate situation, it does not solve the midterm challenge for EWC of continued attempts to reduce or defund altogether key federal programs and institutions that provide invaluable interaction with and assistance to our world.”
Case cautioned that the Trump administration will likely continue trying to slash federal programs and operations into the next federal fiscal year. The EWC must “seek alternative sources of government or private funding” to avoid depleting all of its financial reserves to make up for lost federal funds.
