March 26, 2025
In this Alliance Advocacy Alert:
- IMLS Update
- Actions You Can Take Now
- Other Legislative Updates
- Advocacy Tip of the Month
IMLS Update
As a follow up to last week’s Advocacy Alert, we wanted to provide you with a few updates and additional ways you can take action.
NEW: Representatives Dina Titus (NV-01) and Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01) are circulating a letter for other members of the House of Representatives to sign onto asking the Administration to reconsider the executive order that guts the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Please CALL your members of the House of Representatives to ask them to sign onto the letter. The deadline for members of Congress to sign onto the letter is end of day Friday, March 28 so calling will be the best option given the short turnaround time. AAM has created a draft script you may use. Type in your address to display your House member’s phone number.
Thank you to everyone who has already written and called your members of Congress since our alert went out last week. 45,000 letters and calls have gone through AAM’s letter writing system. Keep it up!
As you have likely heard, Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling was appointed as Acting Director of the Institute of Museums and Library Services (IMLS) last Thursday, March 20 to carry out the Executive Order Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy at IMLS. AAM is closely following these developments and will update this webpage as we know more.
The National Museum and Library Services Board sent Acting Director Sonderling a welcome letter that lays out the agency’s statutory mandates. The Board serves in an official advisory capacity to the Director of IMLS.
Actions You Can Take NOW:
- Call your House of Representatives member and ask them to sign onto the IMLS letter.
- Write AND call your members of Congress about what could be lost if IMLS is gutted.
- Write AND call your state-level elected officials and ask them to join in speaking up to members of Congress.
- Encourage your museum’s Board, supporters, and members to write and call their members of Congress.
- Share your story with local media. Here are some examples of media stories and Op-Eds that have already been published:
- Trump administration seeks to starve libraries and museums of funding by shuttering this little-known agency
- Funding for Iowa museums, libraries in jeopardy following Trump executive order
- Holland Museum facing ‘critical financial challenge’ amid federal funding cuts
- Op-Ed: Opinion: The president is dismantling an important program for Alaska libraries and museums – and Alaskans. Please help save it.
- Invite Congress: Members of Congress will be in their home districts for two weeks in April 13-27, periodically home for extended weekends, and for all of August. Take the opportunity to invite your members of Congress to your museum, schedule a meeting with them in their district offices, or attend public forums that your members of Congress might be hosting.
- If you attended Museums Advocacy Day, contact staff members you met to let them know about the potential impacts of the executive order and, if it is a House member, to ask their bosses to sign onto the letter by Reps. Titus and Bonamici.
Other Legislative Updates
Appropriations: In early March, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution to fund the government at current levels through the end of the FY25 fiscal year (September 30). Congress will now be shifting its efforts to FY26.
Charitable Act (S. 317, H.R. 801): Since Museums Advocacy Day, the Charitable Act continues to gain new bipartisan cosponsors (17 new cosponsors that were offices our advocates met with).
Congressional Museum Caucus: The bipartisan Congressional Museum Caucus was created by Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) and Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) for members of Congress who support museums. As we continue to advocate on behalf of museums, having a robust Congressional Museum Caucus will be a critical asset to museums advocacy efforts. Encourage your members of Congress to join the caucus.
Advocacy Tip of the Month: Connect with your state museum, arts, or cultural organizations
If you aren’t currently involved in your state’s museum association, there’s never been a better time to join. Many state museum associations participate in state Advocacy Days to advocate for funding at the state level, often with other arts and cultural organizations in the state. Participating in state Advocacy Days can be an impactful way to make the value of museums in your region known to your state legislators. If your state museum association needs help strengthening its advocacy efforts, this could be a great opportunity to volunteer and get an advocacy program started.
