The board of the National Museum and Library Services, tasked under federal law with advising the director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), has issued its first piece of advice to newly installed director Keith Sonderling: do not attempt to halt IMLS services.
The letter places the board on a collision course with the Trump administration, which issued an executive order on March 14 targeting the IMLS to be effectively shut down.
In a March 24 letter to Sonderling, who was installed as IMLS acting director last week, the board, in its “statutory capacity,” offered a lengthy list of duties set out in the “Museum and Library Services Act of 2018,” that cannot be “paused, reduced, or eliminated without violating Congressional intent and federal statute.”
The board’s letter states that the agency's “core statutory obligations that are not discretionary” include: Grants to States for Library Services, Native American Library Services, the National Leadership Grants Program, State Plan Requirements, and the statutory Disbursement of Funds.
“It is our considered advice that all current-year and multi-year grants, contracts, cooperative agreements, and awards that have been authorized by law and funded by Congressional appropriation, most recently by the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025, constitute statutory obligations," the letter reads. “These include all Museum Services Activities, Technical Assistance for Museums and Libraries activities, Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program grants, and support for Digital Literacy and Emerging Technologies grants and other grant programs.”
In addition, Congress has also codified several “structural and administrative requirements,” the letter notes, including maintaining offices for both library and museum services, and the ongoing “research, data collection, and policy evaluation” related to libraries and museums, and the public dissemination of this information. And the IMLS’s “statutory requirements” also include duties authorized by other federal laws, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture Act and the National Museum of the American Latino Act.
“All such statutory obligations may not be discontinued or delayed under an Executive Order or other executive action,” the letter states, stressing that federal law affirms IMLS’s obligation to disburse funds to grantees, “subject only to the availability of appropriations,” not to executive action. “Any failure to fulfill these legal obligations or to reduce staffing or program operations below the minimum required to meet statutory mandates would place the agency in noncompliance with Congressional intent.”
The board’s letter tracks with comments submitted by several groups, including the American Library Association and library political action committee EveryLibrary, which have also penned letters outlining the IMLS’s statutory requirements.
“We appreciate the gravity of Executive Order 14238 on the agency and urge you to consider these statutory obligations carefully in the Institute’s response,” the board advises Sonderling. “We are ready to convene and further assist you in developing the agency’s response to the Executive Order.”
The full letter is below:
