U.S. senators Susan Collins (R–Maine), Kirsten Gillibrand (D–N.Y.), Lisa Murkowski (R–Alaska), and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) have written a letter to Keith Sonderling, acting director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, reinforcing that “libraries and museums play a vital role in our communities.”

In the March 26 bipartisan memo, the senators identify themselves as the lead authors of the Museum and Library Services Act (MLSA) of 2018, signed into law during the first Trump Administration, and “remind the Administration of its obligation to faithfully execute the provisions of the law as authorized.” Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, was copied on the letter.

Noting that Congress appropriated $294.8 million for IMLS in fiscal year 2024, the senators provided a breakdown of how these 2024 funds were allotted. Of the total amount, more than $211 million was directed toward libraries and $83.7 million toward museums. The letter notes that “IMLS grants enable libraries to develop services in every community throughout the nation,” while calling museums “drivers of local economic development” that “support more than 700,000 jobs and contribute $50 billion annually to the U.S. economy.”

The senators also asserted that IMLS funding should be renewed in accordance with statutory requirements. “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,” they said in the letter. “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 American Library Association applauded the senators’ defense of federal funding for the IMLS, with a press announcement connected to their Show Up #ForOurLibraries advocacy campaign. ALA president Cindy Hohl thanked the four senators “for acting on a conviction that the vast majority of Americans share: libraries are indispensable to their communities.”

John Chrastka, executive director of advocacy organization EveryLibrary, told PW he's "glad to see Congress stepping up to its oversight role" and focusing on the IMLS's statutory obligations to its state partners. But he tempered his optimism: "I'm not done waiting for the other shoe to drop."