Press Releases

Today, during the full Appropriations Committee markup of the Legislative Branch funding bill for Fiscal Year 2026, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) condemned House Republicans’ proposed cuts to the Library of Congress, which she says threatens the preservation of our nation’s history and culture.

“This is the largest library in the world. It is where some of our greatest treasures are held. It is the Library of Congress. It's our library. It was set up for us for the time we need to do the research for the work that we need to do,” Pingree said in her opening remarks. “And it shows our belief in education, experience, and knowledge. [...] It is all about understanding the importance of education and learning in the work that we do.”

Pingree pointed to the Trump Administration’s pattern of attacking the arts, museums, and culture, including firing the Librarian of Congress, cuts to the Institution of Museum and Library Services, and the President’s proposed budget that would eliminate the National Endowment for the Humanities. She warned that by going along with the proposed cuts to the Library of Congress, the Appropriations Committee would be “colluding in that assault on knowledge.”

A complete transcript of Pingree’s remarks is copied below. 

+++

Thank you very much. Mr. Chair, I want to concur and associate myself with the remarks of so many of my colleagues. This is a terrible bill. It's inadequate funding. It's bad policy. And there are so many irresponsible cuts and programs that are being eliminated under this. 

It also, as the member from Maryland so eloquently stated, really reduces the power of the Congress, and allowing us to abdicate so much of our responsibility to the Executive Branch, particularly, as you've heard others say, my colleagues in Florida, on these GAO cuts – our only legitimate way to have nonpartisan investigations. And we are also abdicating that responsibility. 

But I too, like my colleague from South Carolina, want to focus on the Library of Congress and the important role it's played in our work here and throughout time. And this ridiculous $90 million cut – 15% of the library's budget, starting with the assault already on this institution by firing the great librarian, Carla Hayden, and losing her leadership and the great work she's done for all of us.

This is the largest library in the world. It is where some of our greatest treasures are held. It is the Library of Congress. It's our library. It was set up for us for the time we need to do the research for the work that we need to do. I direct every visitor to Washington and to go to the Library of Congress. It's one of the most magnificent buildings here on Capitol Hill and throughout the Capitol. 

And it shows our belief in education and experience and knowledge throughout the building. The art displayed the symbolism in the building. It is all about understanding the importance of education and learning in the work that we do. It has Jefferson's rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, and we all love the dinners that we attend at the Library of Congress. It's one of the few bipartisan things we do. We sit next to each other. We talk about history, something that we can usually agree on, and we share that knowledge, and we share that experience, and we see the great treasures that are pulled out, usually just for us that night to look at it. It's just recently acquired Stephen Sondheim's papers, but that's just one of the many items that is there.

Every book is somehow represented in the Library of Congress. Many of you don't know that I used to write knitting books, and I'm sure you would like to have volumes on your shelves right now. Just let me know. But the fact is, I can remember the day back in the 1980s when I got my Library of Congress number for the first book, and I just thought—long before I ever thought it would be in Congress—what an amazing experience this is to have my book in the Library of Congress. 

We were so excited in the state of Maine in June when one of our Passamaquoddy elders, Dwayne Tomah, came to the Library of Congress because he was having the opportunity ... Dwayne Tomah has been one of the Passamaquoddy who has done so much to preserve the language. And he was there to sing a song that had been retrieved from wax cylinders that were provided by an anthropologist in the 1890s. 

But finally, through technology used by the Library of Congress, they were able to get the digital version of that song, and he could sing that version in the original language. Think about that treasure and how important that is to preserve the knowledge and the culture of that particular tribe. Singing a song that hadn't been heard for 128 years. 

That's just one of the many things that happens there. And I just want to say, in the context of libraries, this is part of this administration's assault on libraries and knowledge. They've already gutted the IMLS, the Institution of Museum and Library Service. They've gutted the National Endowment for the Humanities. These will both be zeroed out in the FY 26 budget request, although they haven't been heard before us. But we will be colluding in that if we go along with this. 

We've heard so much from our own libraries about the devastation of not having this funding that's already been cut by DOGE. The attack on knowledge, the assault of this administration through their executive orders, on what is allowed in research and scholarship and how we talk about and treat history.

This is us now in this cut colluding in that assault on knowledge that this administration is making. So, Congress should set its best example with its own library. We should not be cutting this account. We should not be getting swept up in the administration's efforts. 

I yield back, but I ask everybody to vote no on this budget. Or, as my colleague said, just throw this bill away and let's start over.

###