You can still save the libraries
Once the money goes its gone. Here are the tips and contact info!
The orange man’s first 100 days resulted in a flurry of Executive Orders that bypassed Congress and the courts to implement an agenda that limits access to information, curtails the rule of law and makes it increasingly harder to call ourselves a democracy. Among the onslaught of paper that resulted in books about Ruby Bridges and Martin Luther King being pulled from shelves across the country, there was a broader order that seeks to strip funding from libraries altogether.
Libraries are one of the last bastions of free thought and a pillar of free speech and information in this country. It’s free. You don’t have to be rich to gain access. You don’t have to buy a cup of coffee to sit for a while. You don’t have to know someone to get a pass or live in the right neighborhood, it’s just there. If the education system fails you, you can still teach yourself at the library. The current presidential administration wants to put an end to that.
To learn more about the time line take a look at this article on Book Riot
On March 14, a Trump Executive Order took aim at the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The IMLS the only federal agency dedicated to public libraries and museums. Since that Order, the IMLS has been gutted, turned into a propaganda machine, been subject to two federal lawsuits challenging the Order, and seen its future as shuttering completely laid out in Trump’s 2026 budget. A full timeline of the IMLS destruction, as well as the impact of the work done to harm the institution, is available here.
What’s getting cut?
Some examples of library services commonly funded through IMLS grants:
Talking Books and Braille Library services
Inter-library loan
Access to databases for all levels and types of education, including databases used by medical schools, K-12 schools, and homeschoolers.
Bookmobiles
Literacy programs
Small-business and entrepreneurship programs (Get more info here: https://www.ala.org/faq-executive-order-targeting-imls)
In addition to stripping funding from libraries. It will also strip funding for museums as well. Planning for a Women’s History Museum has stopped and requests for review of certain exhibits at the African American History Museum has begun, not to mention the very concerning removal of biographies of Black figures from history from government websites. (Read more about that here)
But why? They say it’s to reduce burocracy and shrink the government, but the most recent Big Beautiful Bill allocates $45 Billion dollars for ICE detention centers, but there’s no money for libraries?
All is not lost though, because the final budget is still being discussed. Here are the people on the committee that must approve allocation for IMLS. There are 17 members on the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education.
Majority
Robert Aderholt (AL)– Chair
Mike Simpson (ID)
Andy Harris (MD)
Chuck Fleischmann (TN)
John Moolenaar (MI)
Julia Letlow – Vice Chair (LA)
Andrew Clyde (GA)
Jake Ellzey (TX)
Stephanie Bice (OK)
Riley Moore (WV)
Minority
Rosa DeLauro (CT) – Ranking Member
Steny Hoyer (NY) - scroll to the bottom of the page.
Mark Pocan (WI)
Josh Harder (CA)
Madeleine Dean (PA)
If the link goes to Congress.gov it is because their contact information requires an address. I assume this is to filter out requests and comments from people outside of their district, but that is not useful because those on the committee are representing the American people and not just those in their tiny house districts, otherwise everyone in Congress would get a say in the committee. Use the phone numbers listed instead.
What do you say?
My script: Hi, my name is ( ) and I live in ( ) and I’m urging Representative ( ) to continue to fund libraries. I have been an avid library user since childhood. It is still one of the few places that support programs for all community citizens from the cradle to the grave. Literacy rates are getting lower and lower and if Americans are going to remain globally competitive and have a reason to feel pride in their country they have to have access to resources like the public library and it has to remain free. Communities need Senior book clubs, and pre-k story time and bookmobiles and free wi-fi during disasters and more. All of that disappears if funding to libraries get cut. Thanks for listening.
In addition, Baby, we need term limits. Some of these people are over eighty years old. They have no personal vested interest in long reaching policy because they won’t be here. We also need our representatives to have material interest in and knowledge of new technologies, movements, etc. Consultation will always have value, but to be the voting member. We’ve got to teach people how to say ‘goodbye’. (Hey! C’mon Hamilton reference.)
Thank you so much for this! I’m forwarding this to everyone!