Evidently, the Advisory Commission which relies heavily upon USIA for technical and logistical support was influenced by the bureaucratic agenda of the U.S. Information Agency.
It is striking, however, that the Advisory Commission goes on to recommend that USIA be the locus for this sort of training and the recipient of additional funds to support it.
This situation is different than the one that existed prior to 1999 before the United States Information Agency (USIA) was disbanded. (Since then the Voice of America was made part of the State Department).
Smith-Mundt and its amendments in the 1972 Foreign Relations Authorization Act, the 1985 Zorinsky Amendment, and the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring act of 1998 refer only to the State Department and USIA. The law is written very narrowly.
The law, which established US public diplomacy and international broadcasting as we know it today, contains a provision that bans the State Department and the former US Information Agency (USIA) from releasing information to Americans that is designed for foreign audiences.