Monday, June 16, 2025

Watchdog Finds Trump Administration Broke Law by Withholding Library Funds; The New York Times, June 16, 2025

 , The New York Times; Watchdog Finds Trump Administration Broke Law by Withholding Library Funds

"The inquiry concerned the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which serves as the federal government’s primary source of funding for libraries, museums and archives. In March, Mr. Trump sought to sharply curtail the agency as part of an executive order focused on the “reduction of the federal bureaucracy,” prompting legal challenges from states, librarians and other opponents.

The accountability office, an arm of Congress that keeps watch over the nation’s spending, concluded on Monday that the library agency ultimately “ceased performing” its functions after the president’s directive, and withheld funding that lawmakers had previously appropriated to carry out its mission.

Ethics officials ultimately classified the interruption in aid as an illegal impoundment, which is prohibited under a 1970s law meant to restrict the president and his ability to defy Congress on spending. The White House maintains that those limits are unconstitutional, and the president and his top budget aide, Russell T. Vought, have sought to test that theory as part of their dramatic and chaotic reorganization of the federal government."

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