Warren, Markey call for answers on federal funding cuts to Mass. museums and libraries

Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey sent a letter Tuesday evening to the Institute of Museum and Library Services Acting Director Keith E. Sonderling demanding answers on funding cuts to museums and libraries across the country.

Sen. Warren's office shared the letter exclusively with WBUR on Monday. In the document, Warren and Markey asked for further information on the future of certain programs and IMLS’s plan to act in accordance with laws that require minimum funding by state.

“Donald Trump’s cuts to museums and libraries are an attack on our nation’s history and on children’s education,” Warren told WBUR in a statement. “This chaos will jeopardize $50 billion in economic benefit and over 720,000 jobs. As the Trump administration continues to damage our communities, Senator Markey and I will keep fighting for families in Massachusetts and across the country.”

Karen Sanchez-Eppler, board president of the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum, told WBUR that this letter is a meaningful step.

“ I'm so grateful to our representatives for recognizing in the large mix of really significant executive actions that need strong congressional responses, I'm glad that they recognize that support for libraries and museums and the federal agencies that support them is an important part of that mix,” she said.

Sanchez-Eppler said the museum never received a grant termination notice, but IMLS has stopped reimbursing their expenses.

“ It really has been such a lift to us to hear that the stories we want to tell are stories that mattered on a national level,” she said. “And there's a way in which these attacks just make that clear that these are stories that matter on a national level.”

Addressing the importance of libraries, the letter details how 1,700 libraries in Massachusetts are supported by federal funding and 900 of those are at schools. Constituents expressed the importance of literary resources for students, especially young readers.

“Childhood afternoons spent at the Malden Public Library story hour are what taught me how to dream. These proposed cuts to funding threaten neighborhood library and museum programs that support curiosity, learning, and access to information,” Markey told WBUR in a statement. “I am proud to join Senator Warren to demand answers from the Trump administration on why they want to eliminate these critical resources in the Commonwealth. Our communities deserve a brighter future. Our children deserve a chance to dream big.”

The letter also addresses concerns over cuts to other federal agencies like the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Warren and Markey requested that Sonderling provide further information about how the IMLS plans on meeting the minimum $1 million of funding per state required of the IMLS and what discretionary programs through the Office of Library Services and Office of Museum Services will or won’t be funded by June 24.

The letter follows President Donald Trump issuing an executive order for the elimination of seven cultural and civil federal agencies, including IMLS, on March 14.

Following the order, Trump appointed Sonderling, the deputy secretary of Labor, as acting director of IMLS, and the entire IMLS staff was placed on leave. Grants to institutions across the country have since been suspended and terminated.

A federal judge halted Trump’s executive order on May 6. According to a status report from the administration on May 20, involuntarily terminated staff returned to work and the agency was working to reinstate grants. The administration has since filed an appeal to the judge’s ruling.

The IMLS has not returned WBUR’s request for comment.