A court ruling protected the Institute for Museum and Library Services, but the fight isn’t over

Guest:	Sam Helmick
Title:	President of the American Libraries Association
Summary:	A federal court has blocked administrative efforts to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services. But the administration’s latest budget proposal would eliminate its funding anyway, putting legal clarity and budget reality on different tracks.

The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton provides expert insights on current events in the federal community. Read more interviews to keep up with daily news and analysis that affect the federal workforce. Reach out to Terry and the Federal Drive producers with feedback and story ideas at FederalDrive@federalnewsnetwork.com.

Interview transcript

Terry Gerton There are two headlines I want to walk through with you today. One is a federal court victory that protects the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and at the same time, the White House released a budget for 2027 that would eliminate IMLS funding entirely. From the ALA’s perspective, how do those two developments, which seem sort of separate and distinct, come together?

Sam Helmick So we had this wonderful success that talks to us about, you know, the power of coalitions. Working with AFSCME to recover the reduction in forces and to safeguard the Institute for Museum and Library Services and to really kind of put a pause on any future executive orders that would be pernicious to that cause has been a wonderful reflection on the voice of the American public speaking up for their libraries and making sure their representatives understand that Americans have always valued their libraries. In fact, it’s been part of the America story for 250 years to be a more perfect union, Terry, maybe never perfect, but more perfect, we need to have access to information and opportunity and hope and libraries really dole out all three in wonderful amounts. So the next plan of attack is to really hit the budget that would fund this institution because you and I both know, not only as taxpayers, but as a librarian, budgets are values in action. And so to remove those congressionally mandated funds would essentially leave the institute dead in the water regardless. So this is now the time between now and June 5th to talk to our Appropriations Committee and ensure that when they meet for their Labor Health and Human Services Education and Religion Agency’s bill review, that Americans have spoken up and said, please fund the Institute for Museum and Library Services. We want it intact and we need to invest in ourselves by funding it.

        Join us May 11 for Federal News Network's Risk & Compliance Exchange as government and industry experts discuss how to navigate evolving cybersecurity mandates and accelerate secure adoption of emerging technologies.

Terry Gerton Alright, now let’s go back and let’s take those two things apart and dig in a little more deeply. On the court case, the administration withdrew its appeal. So there was a decision that the administration appealed. They just withdrew that appeal. The court effectively barred further efforts to dismantle IMLS administratively. What does that ruling secure for IMLs in practical terms?

Sam Helmick In practical terms the reduction in force, so our specialists and information practitioners who have been doing this wonderful work for our states and territories, are to be returned and any future reductions in force should not be taking place, according to this decision. And then any tangential executive order that would try to come after the Institute in another direction or way or angle is not to be entertained. The federal courts have spoken.

Terry Gerton And so does that change anything in the day-to-day operations at IMLS?

Sam Helmick I’m desperately hoping so because we rely on it for so much. I’m really excited about folks being able to add that human capacity to the grants that have been released to universities, schools and studies through the Institute for Museum and Library Services. But they’re also the one-stop space for all of the data that we track about American libraries. How many folks walk into our doors, hop on our bookmobiles, attend programs and circulate. Our state libraries and commissions report this information to them, but we still have to have minds process that data and give us the context about what that means in terms of Americans using information spaces in the information age.

Terry Gerton Now let’s go to the budget. We mentioned up front that the administration has proposed a zero budget for IMLS for 2027. What does a budget for IMLS typically include?

Sam Helmick Right, so beyond ensuring that it has that human capital to manage the funds, it’s also a matching program of dollars with our state libraries to ensure that our state taxes and our federal taxes can merge and meet and support each other. And we see that in a variety of ways, Terry. We see some folks like in Iowa use those dollars to provide statewide circulation of e-audiobooks and e-digital books. In Iowa, also where I’m from that has the most libraries per capita than any other state in the nation, we use it for a courier service so that those tax dollars can go further and if I need seven copies of a book for a story time or a book club with my with my patrons, they don’t have to buy seven copies at their local library. They can borrow them from libraries around the state. And so those dollars are helping the human hearts process the data, help folks on the ground and libraries that are serving their communities. But It’s also bringing dollars through matching programs into local communities in order for them to best serve their libraries however that really needs to be met.

Terry Gerton I’m speaking with Sam Helmick, president of the American Libraries Association. So Sam, the budget battle with the Trump administration started in Trump one, right? Yes.

        Sign up for our daily newsletter so you never miss a beat on all things federal

Sam Helmick Absolutely. It was always zeroed out. And so it was difficult to argue for more when you had to argue for any or same. And I remember feeling some fatigue and actually maybe teething my advocacy chops as a librarian back then, because I’ve always loved awareness work and enfranchising the American public to know what’s available to them. So I’m a marketer, but as the administration started to zero out that budget, I realized that sometimes awareness becomes advocacy if the environment is pernicious to library communities.

Terry Gerton And if the budget for IMLS were actually zeroed out, what are the changes that library patrons might notice first?

Sam Helmick Right. So what really worried us when it was dismantled in the first place was that state tax dollars in this matching program couldn’t be used as well as they are through that federal wing. And what I mean is that, so there’s a courier service in Iowa that delivers these books and the bills don’t stop just because the federally mandated dollars aren’t getting to the states. And so I think you would see an economic crunch during a time where library budgets in their states are already tight. State budgets are tight. You would see like a stop in services because the uncertainty and precarity of this can only go on for so long before you have to eventually say to offer consistency to our communities we have to provide less despite the fact that their tax dollars and their representatives offered more.

Terry Gerton And people think about libraries and books, but libraries are so much more woven into the fabric of community life these days.

Sam Helmick Oh, I think of them as community anchor institutions. Like, there’s a stop in rural-er Johnson County on my bookmobile where two mayors will stop in Hills, Iowa and they’ll, like, spill the tea. And I’m like, oh, I didn’t even have to go to the city council meeting because this is the public square for the 45 minutes we stop here for books. I think about other library grants that are through the Institute for Museum and Library Services that provide things like electronic seats for stairs that go down to the second floor or basement of a library, because that library is also that town’s storm shelter. So we really have to think about the fact that without an institute for museum and library services, we don’t have a federal initiative to really think about the services that are tailored to the unique needs to all of our constituencies.

Terry Gerton Congress has overridden the president’s budget request in Trump one and last year to zero out funding and in fact increased funds slightly for IMLS, but for state agencies, local communities who rely on those kinds of grants as we’ve just been discussing, what problem does this uncertainty in resource delivery, what problems does that create for them?

Sam Helmick Thinking about this myself because it obviously disproportionately affects our small and rural communities who rely on their community library for everything from job seeking to DOT kiosks so they can get their IDs and their driver’s license to learning a new language to having a place for our teenagers to hang out after school and a place for our kids to go. Often the summer reading program is the family vacation in rural America and if you can’t confirm that you’re going to have budgets for like the juggler or sidewalk chalk, it’s really difficult to create a community event that’s going to not only educate and entertain, but edify and build community across America.

Terry Gerton And those communities have probably already started planning their 2027 programs, right? So how are they managing right now? They don’t know whether they’re gonna get funding or not.

Sam Helmick Right, so I would say that this is a larger answer because, as you know, libraries really support the social welfare infrastructure that has not been as heavily invested in America as it has other Western societies. So these libraries have been accustomed to shoestring budgets and doing more with same or more with less, so they’re reaching out to community members, they’re reaching out the small businesses, they are reaching out strategically collaborate with our community partners to ensure that we can really lean in and make some memories and some meaningful moments based in literacy and education for our summer reading kiddos. But we’ve been doing that work because despite living in an information age where it’s really necessary for entrepreneurial development, civic engagement, and probably national security to have an informed constituency, libraries continually at the local, regional, and federal level are not as invested in as I think would probably be useful in this age.

        Read more: Litigation

Terry Gerton You mentioned up front an encouragement for people to write their members of Congress and explain how important libraries are. As Congress starts work on their 2027 appropriations, what milestones should people be watching to signal whether IMLS funding is likely to hold?

Sam Helmick Well, I really appreciate the fact that the American Library Association at ala.org\advocacy has a section called fund libraries and it has published the Appropriation Committee chairman Tom Cole’s, released schedule for for the steps that will happen. So I really would appreciate if folks would take a look at that and remind themselves that they can tell their wonderful library stories to their representatives all throughout the month of April and May, as we kind of come into those June deliberations. I would definitely say tell them one story, but then go back and tell them again because they do care about the data, but more importantly, they care about those stories of impact, about parents who met each other as new members of community because they want to story time with their babies, or a person who got laid off from a factory and had never used an email address in their life, but the library taught them how, taught them to attach a resume that they typed up for the first time in their lives to a job application, and helped the person find a job. Those stories of impact I think work so well in libraries that sometimes they’re overlooked, and we need to remind our representatives of that impact and power.

Copyright © 2026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.