Trump Administration Violated Law By Withholding Institute of Museum and Library Services Funds, Government Agency Reports

The non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a decision on Monday finding that the Trump administration’s withholding of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funding, appropriated by Congress, is in violation of the law.

In March, President Trump signed the executive order “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,” which called for the IMLS to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law” within seven days. That order followed another that shrank seven federal agencies, among them the IMLS.

The agency, which is responsible for distributing federal dollars to American museums and libraries, was then gutted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in April, with its entire 75-person staff placed on leave by acting director Keith Sonderling.

The IMLS is legally bound to support libraries and report important issues to Congress. After the president’s directives, however, the GAO, a part of Congress that monitors federal spending, found that the IMLS “ceased performing” and withheld approved funding intended to support its goal.

It also determined that Trump’s executive order is in violation of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA), as he cannot instruct the IMLS to withhold funding that had previously been appropriated by Congress, including slashing programs that are supported by federal funds and failing to operate the agency as was originally intended.

The GAO attempted to contact and confirm the withholding with the IMLS, but the agency could not be reached. As such, publicly available “evidence indicates that IMLS withheld appropriated funds from obligation and expenditure, and because the burden to justify such withholdings rests with IMLS and the executive branch, we conclude that IMLS violated the ICA by withholding funds from obligation and expenditure, as well as by withholding funds that could not be withheld for any reason”, the GAO explained in its report.

This is not the first time this year that the GAO has raised issue with the Trump administration, with more than three dozen investigations into Trump’s expenditures. In late May, it announced that the first of those findings indicated that the administration violated the law when it withheld funds as part of a $5 billion program to expand electric vehicle charging stations. The administration, however, has denied the charges.

Mark R. Paoletta, the general counsel for the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, wrote in a May letter that the GAO’s decision is an “invasion by an arm of Congress” that “undermine[s] agency efforts to faithfully implement the law and the president’s priorities”, reported the New York Times.

It is unclear whether the GAO will sue the administration for refusing to release the congressionally appropriated funds.

Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled against stopping the Trump administration from continuing to slash the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The IMLS is also facing the possibility of federal defunding should the Trump administration’s proposed 2026 fiscal budget be approved by Congress, with an allocation of only $6 million that would be used to close the agency and several others at the beginning of 2026.