(L-R) U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban | Danny Gys/AFP via Getty Images US lawmakers raise concerns about Trump administration’s Hungary policy 22 Democrats send a letter to the State Department.

A group of 22 Democratic members of Congress have raised serious concerns about U.S. policy toward Hungary and why the State Department canceled a planned $700,000 grant to support independent media in that country, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO.

Marcy Kaptur, co-chair of the Congressional Hungarian Caucus, led the letter, which is addressed to Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell and asks for clarification on the canceled money.

The letter points to an “increasingly diminished space for independent journalism in Hungary” and the Hungarian government’s use of public funds for the “promotion of stories from Russian government mouthpieces, such as Russia Today and Sputnik.”

The State Department announced its proposal to fund independent media in rural Hungary in November 2017, but canceled its plans in July this year.

The proposed program proved controversial in Budapest, where the government in late 2017 summoned the top U.S. diplomat after he publicly expressed worries about the state of freedom of the press in Hungary.

A State Department spokesperson on behalf of Mitchell declined to comment on the letter, why the State Department canceled the money and if it plans to restore it. “We do not comment on congressional correspondence. We respond to congressional inquiries through appropriate channels,” the spokesperson told POLITICO.

The Hungarian embassy did not respond to a request for comment.

While the State Department has in the past been vocal about democratic backsliding and media freedom problems in Hungary and other countries in the region, including last year in its Human Rights Report on Hungary, Mitchell, a Donald Trump appointee, is widely seen as having reduced the department’s focus on democracy issues when dealing with Hungary. Trump himself has come under fire from both Republicans and Democrats for not standing up for democratic values and a free press worldwide.

The letter also points out that the European Parliament recently called for the launching of a sanctions procedure against Hungary.

In its vote on Hungary, the European Parliament cited concerns about judicial independence, corruption, freedom of expression, academic freedom, the rights of minorities and migrants, and other issues, with many conservative lawmakers supporting the resolution.

At the same time, the new U.S. ambassador to Hungary, David Cornstein, said in August that he has not seen problems with freedom of the press in the country.

But the 22 signatories of the congressional letter believe Hungary faces serious press freedom challenges — and that the U.S. should react.

“Independent media in Hungary has come under fire from the government,” Kaptur said in a statement. “Media consolidated in the hands of a few is a weapon against liberty.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of Democrats who signed the letter.