Trump funding cuts put libraries in peril

Sarah D. Wire

USA TODAY

MOUNT AIRY, Maryland – On Wednesday night and Thursday morning, libraries across the country were informed that grants approved last year – and in many cases already spent – are being terminated.

The grants violate an executive order recently signed by President Donald Trump and are inconsistent with the administration’s priorities for the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The IMLS was effectively shuttered March 31, and all work on approving federal grants for state, local and academic libraries was immediately halted.

California’s, Connecticut’s and Washington’s State Librarians offices confirmed to USA TODAY that their grants had been ended six months early. Other states are anxiously waiting to find out if they are next.

Even though their grant hasn’t yet been terminated, Mississippi’s Library Commission cut off access to the state’s e-book system this week so that 'if we did not receive the funds the obligation would not be there,' said spokeswoman Kristina Kelly.

On Thursday, EveryLibrary, a nonprofit that organizes grassroots campaigns for library funding and stopping book bans, issued a statement saying the terminated contracts included already authorized and approved grants that Congress created the agency to disburse, including the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian grants.

'This abrupt termination of Grants to States comes in the middle of the federal fiscal year and will create sudden, significant shortfalls in nearly every state library budget,' the statement said. 'Funding these grants is not optional – they are part of the agency’s core mandate and must be administered and disbursed in accordance with law,' the release states.

In fiscal year 2024, the Institute of Museum and Library Services distributed nearly $267million in congressionally approved funds to libraries and museums in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and to library, museum and archives programs through grants. It serves 35,000 museums and 123,000 libraries across the country, according to its website.

Every state receives an amount of money proportional to that state’s population. Often states use it to offer services to every library that would be difficult for individual libraries to purchase, like access to a pool of e-books, subscriptions to research databases or materials for summer reading programs.

On March 31, the entire roughly 70-person staff was abruptly placed on administrative leave after the Department of Government Efficiency met with agency leaders, according to their union AFGE Local 3403, a branch of the American Federation of Government Employees.

'Museums and libraries will no longer be able to contact IMLS staff for updates about the funding they rely upon,' according to a statement from the union local.

'In the absence of staff, all work processing 2025 applications has ended. The status of previously awarded grants is unclear. Without staff to administer the programs, it is likely that most grants will be terminated.'

IMLS did not respond to an emailed list of questions USA TODAY sent before staff was placed on leave.

On March 14, President Donald Trump issued an executive order eliminating the Institute of Museum and Library Services 'to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.'

The order states that the institute must be reduced to its 'statutory functions.' It also requires that 'non-statutory components and functions ... shall be eliminated.'

'President Trump’s executive order is cutting bureaucracy and bloat to deliver better services for the American people,' White House press aide Anna Kelly told USA TODAY.

'Thanks to the President’s refocus of the agency, the Institute of Museum and Library Services will be able to better showcase American exceptionalism with greater efficiency for the public.'

Keith Sonderling, Trump’s deputy secretary of labor, became acting director of the institute March 19. He was accompanied by a team of security and staff from the Department of Government Efficiency, the federal advisory agency led by Elon Musk .

The Labor Department issued a statement to USA TODAY that said: 'President Trump was given a clear mandate by the American people, and his Executive Order delivers on that by reducing federal bureaucracy. This restructure is a necessary step to fulfill that order and ensure hard-earned tax dollars are not diverted to discriminatory DEI initiatives or divisive, anti-American programming in our cultural institutions. These changes will strengthen IMLS’s ability to serve the American people with integrity and purpose.'

Stephanie Matthews comes to the Carroll County Public Library in Mount Airy, Maryland, every other day. She attends a knitting club while her adult daughter brings her own child to toddler play time.

That’s why Matthews is so worried about the funding cuts.

'The library is super important and should not have the cuts that are coming,' Matthews said. 'Libraries are just foundational to every community.'

Her daughter, Rebecca Matthews, said she’s never considered herself the type of person to call her member of Congress, but after hearing about the cuts, 'now I will.'

A steady stream of patrons flowed through the Mount Airy library doors for hours Wednesday. Outside, the library’s bookmobile was being restocked. Emblazoned on the side was a credit: 'This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.'

Multiple advocacy groups are calling for Americans to contact their governors and federal lawmakers about the future of the institute.

More than 21,000 people have signed a petition sponsored by the library advocacy group EveryLibrary.

John Chrastka, executive director of EveryLibrary, said they hope the petition causes people to contact their elected officials and demand accountability about whatever changes are made to a 'backbone agency' that most people don’t even know exists.

'We want to educate them, inform them and activate them because it’s the kind of agency that would be very easy to see slip away in so much chaos in Washington, D.C., and yet, if it did, there would be down-channel negative effects in almost every community in this country,' he said.