Congress Funded the Library Agency. The White House Shut It Off Anyway.
Summary
The Institute of Museum and Library Services runs on a $294.8 million appropriation Congress had already enacted. In March 2025 the administration tried to eliminate it anyway, placing all 77 employees on leave and cutting the agency's own obligations from $191 million to $90 million in five months. GAO ruled it illegal that June; a federal court made the ruling permanent in November. Congress funded IMLS again in February 2026, at $291.8 million.
Where the money was supposed to go
Congress set IMLS's budget at $294,800,000 for fiscal year 2024 and held it flat into 2025 under a continuing resolution. Two-thirds of that money — $180 million — is the "Grants to States" program: a formula that sends every state at least $680,000 a year to run its state library agency, covering 66% of the activities in each state's federally required plan, per the spending table Congress attached to the appropriations act and quoted in GAO's decision. The rest funds competitive grants to museums, library-school training, and a small research office.
View data as table
| Grants to States | $180.0M | formula grants to state library agencies |
|---|---|---|
| Museums for America | $30.3M | competitive museum grants |
| National Leadership: Libraries | $15.3M | competitive library grants |
| Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian | $10.0M | library workforce training |
| Program administration | $22.7M | running the agency |
| Other library, museum & research grants | $36.5M | six smaller program lines |
California's state library was told on April 1, 2025 that its $15.7 million Grants to States award — the funding line behind local library programs statewide — was terminated, with only about 21% of that money disbursed so far. California was one of 21 states that sued.
How the freeze actually worked
On March 31, 2025, IMLS issued a reduction in force that placed all 77 of its employees on paid administrative leave — the full agency, per the federal court's own finding of fact. The Acting Director later testified, under oath, that IMLS had terminated roughly 1,200 of its roughly 1,300 competitive grants, leaving about 100 in place. Add up his own numbers for the $114.8 million the agency controlled outside Grants to States — $78.5 million in canceled grants, $4–5 million in canceled contracts, $900,000 a month in reduced staffing costs — and calculated IMLS had obligated only $21.5 million of that pool, about 19%, by the time it ruled.
View data as table
| Jan–May 2023 | $189.9M | |
|---|---|---|
| Jan–May 2024 | $191.0M | |
| Jan–May 2025 | $89.9M | −53% vs. same months in 2024 |
The agency's own spending data tells the same story without anyone's sworn testimony. pulled IMLS's obligations toward its eight core grant programs straight from USAspending.gov: $89.9 million obligated in the first five months of 2025, against $191.0 million over the same months in 2024 and $189.9 million in 2023 — a 53% collapse, entirely explained by five weeks in the spring of 2025.
The paper trail
Twenty-one state attorneys general sued on April 4, 2025; the American Library Association and AFSCME sued three days later. A temporary restraining order landed May 1; a preliminary injunction on May 13 ordered IMLS to bring back "anyone placed on leave or involuntarily terminated." In a sworn declaration explaining what compliance would cost, the Acting Director said the injunction required reinstating 57 staff, at least 755 competitive grants worth about $78.5 million, and $4–5 million in canceled contracts — figures used to reconstruct the freeze in the first place.
On June 16, 2025, GAO ruled that IMLS had violated the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 by withholding funds Congress had appropriated without following the law's notification procedure — 's second such finding against the administration that month. On November 21, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island permanently blocked the dismantling in Rhode Island v. Trump. IMLS announced it was reinstating every canceled grant on December 3, 2025. Congress then funded the agency for FY2026 — $291.8 million, enacted February 3, 2026 — and in April 2026 the administration withdrew its appeal and signed a binding settlement with ALA and AFSCME agreeing IMLS stays intact.
The takeaway
- The money was never actually cut by Congress. IMLS's FY2025 appropriation was $294.8 million the whole time; the freeze was an agency withholding funds it was legally required to spend, not a legislative defunding.
- and two federal courts agreed it was illegal, not merely disputed policy — the Impoundment Control Act ruling and the permanent injunction both rest on the same underlying fact: Congress appropriated the money, and the executive branch didn't have the authority to just not spend it.
- The agency is funded again, almost at parity. FY2026's $291.8 million is $3 million below the pre-freeze level — the closest thing this fight has to a scar.
Dollar figures for FY2025 reflect the appropriation carried from Pub. L. No. 118-47 into FY2025 under continuing-resolution authority; obligation figures are 's tabulation of USAspending.gov transaction data as of June 3, 2025, and may undercount transactions reported after that date.
Sources
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, Institute of Museum and Library Services — Applicability of the Impoundment Control Act to Reduction of Agency Functions, B-337375 (June 16, 2025) — the appropriation breakdown, the 77-employee RIF context, the competitive-grant termination count, the $114.8 million/$21.5 million impoundment math, and the 2023–2025 obligations comparison. gao.gov/products/b-337375
- U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, memorandum and order in State of Rhode Island et al. v. Trump et al., No. 1:25-cv-00128 (Nov. 21, 2025) — the court's finding that IMLS's March 31, 2025 RIF placed all 77 employees on leave, and the permanent injunction blocking the agency's dismantling. ag.ny.gov
- The White House, Executive Order 14238, "Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy" (Mar. 14, 2025), as published in the Federal Register — the order directing IMLS's functions to be eliminated. federalregister.gov
- CBS News Sacramento, reporting on the California State Library's terminated $15.7 million Grants to States award — the state-level example of the freeze reaching a specific library system. cbsnews.com
- American Library Association, "Trump administration withdraws appeal, securing historic victory for libraries and IMLS" (Apr. 2026) — the April 2026 settlement confirming IMLS remains intact. ala.org
- American Libraries Magazine, "Federal Funding for Libraries Prevails" (Feb. 6, 2026) — reporting on the enacted FY2026 appropriation, including IMLS's $291.8 million total and the Library Services and Technology Act's $212.5 million line, from the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (H.R. 7148 / P.L. 119-75, signed Feb. 3, 2026). americanlibrariesmagazine.org
- Congress.gov, H.R. 7148, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, 119th Congress — the enacted text funding IMLS for FY2026. congress.gov
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The Institute of Museum and Library Services is small by federal standards — 77 employees, a nine-figure budget, no regulatory power over anyone. What it does is write checks: to state library agencies, to small museums, to graduate library schools. On March 14, 2025, an executive order, EO 14238, directed IMLS to eliminate every function not required by statute. Within two weeks the agency had stopped paying most of the money Congress had already appropriated to it. A year later, the money is flowing again — but only after the agency's own watchdog and two federal courts said the freeze was against the law.