Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Susan Collins, Jack Reed (D-RI), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) sent a bipartisan letter to Acting Director Keith Sonderling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) seeking assurances that appropriated federal funding for the IMLS will be implemented. In 2018, the same group of Senators authored the reauthorization of the Museum and Library Services Act (MLSA), which established the IMLS.
The Senators urged Acting Director Sonderling to continue the IMLS’s mission to engage with and support libraries and museums, as Congress intended when it created the agency. The letter comes in response to a March 14, 2025 executive order issued by President Trump that seeks to eliminate the IMLS.
“As the lead authors of the Museum and Library Services Act (MLSA) of 2018 (PL 115-40), which was signed into law by President Trump, we write to remind the Administration of its obligation to faithfully execute the provisions of the law as authorized,” the Senators wrote. “The MLSA established the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and tasked the Director with the ‘primary responsibility for the development and implementation of policy to ensure the availability of museum, library, and information services adequate to meet the essential information, education, research, economic, cultural, and civic needs of the people of the United States.’”
“We expect that the Administration will implement the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act of 2025 in a manner consistent with these allocations enacted in Fiscal Year 2024. We also expect that the Administration will allow the IMLS to engage with and support both libraries and museums as Congress intended and as authorized in the MLSA,” the Senators concluded.
Grant funding from the IMLS has allowed the Maine State Library (MSL) to provide free gigabit internet service, web hosting, and technical expertise to 243 public libraries in Maine. This funding also helped the MSL acquire more than 740,000 new books, e-books, and audiobooks across all Maine libraries, including books for their mobile delivery van and books for those who are visually or hearing impaired.
Senator Collins, Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, secured more than $6.1 million in Congressionally Directed Spending for Maine public libraries in Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bills.
The complete text of the Senators’ letter can be read here.
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